An Aspiring Writer's World

It's time to say goodbye

2012-01-13T10:41:00.001-08:00

Well, I think by now everyone has noticed that I haven't been blogging over here for a while. Between the blog at my website and my four jobs, I haven't had much time to give this blog the attention it deserves. So, unfortunately, I think it's time to say goodbye over here, at least for now.

I want to thank everyone so much for following this blog, entering contests and sharing wonderful comments. I am still blogging over at www.gabrielalessa.com and, as my editing business takes off (YAY!) I hope I get to work with each one of you wonderful authors who have kept me company over here. I had a great time at this blog and I really appreciate each and every one of you.

Maybe I'll manage to get this baby up and running again soon. In the meantime, I would love to have you over at the website, and you can always find me on Twitter and Facebook.

Thanks for reading! And keep in touch!

Best,
Gabi

Guest post: Blogging - The Best Decision An Aspiring Writer Can Make, by Dee Anne Mason

2011-12-15T12:17:00.000-08:00

If you're an aspiring writer, then you should be blogging by now. Blogging opens up a lot of possibilities and has lots of benefits too.

Where Should You Blog?

Let's start with where to blog. Even if you don't have your own blog, you can write for others. Guest blogging on this blog or other writing blogs is a good way to develop your blogging and writing skills. Many of the writing blogs you read will be open to guest bloggers, especially if you are part of the community and read and comment regularly, so don't be afraid to approach them.
If you're looking to spread your net a bit wider, there are a couple of good services that put would-be guest bloggers and those who want to publish guest posts together. MyBlogGuest is owned by Ann Smarty. It's free to join and you can browse the different categories of the forum and see what you'd like to write about. And Cathy Stucker's Blogger Linkup is a free mailing list where people offer and request guest posts. While neither has a category specifically for writing about writing, there's no rule that says you can't blog about other aspects of your life, such as parenting, travel or any of your hobbies.

The Next Step

While guest blogging is a great way to raise your writer profile, it will work even better if you have your own site to send readers to. When you guest blog, you get an author bio, and wouldn't it be great if people could visit your own writing website to find out more about you and your work? That's the reason why you should set up your own writing blog - and it's not hard to do. Many people start with a blog on Blogger or WordPress and then move later to a blog on their own domain. Whichever option you go for, you have lots of ways to customize the blog so you can show off your latest books.

Connecting With Your Audience

Not only does blogging get you into the writing habit (and remember, you don't have to blog only about your work in progress) but it connects you with a wider community of writers. Every writer is intrigued by how other writers manage their writing process, so other writers will come to your blog to talk to you about that. Your blog is also a great hub for your book marketing efforts, as you can give insights into what you are doing, where you are promoting, publishing options and so on. On the subject of marketing, once you have your blog you can spread your net wider by entering into social media. Book marketing is no longer about an interview on the traditional leather couch; writers have to do a lot of promotion themselves.

Let's Talk About Microblogging

Social media is another way to connect with your audience, and while you can use it without a blog, it's good to be able to talk to people in multiple places. Many people use Twitter to send short updates about their writing, to connect with other writers via the #amwriting and #writing hashtags, to follow chats related to writing and to encourage people to visit the content on their blog. Since Twitter specializes in short, 140 character updates, it's useful to continue the conversation on your writing blog.
You can feed your writing blog updates to Twitter automatically and can also do the same with other forms of social media. Facebook is a great place to create a fan page for your book. Since it has a wall where people can leave comments as well as the capacity to have a discussion forum, many writers find it a useful addition to their blog. Facebook gets traffic, which means more attention for your blog and your book.
One forum which some writers ignore is LinkedIn. Seen primarily as a business networking site, LinkedIn is another place where you can feed in your blog. The advantage of LinkedIn is its groups feature. There are dozens of groups for writers so it's another place to connect with them.
Your blog gives you a starting point for publishing content on social media and expanding your connections with writers and publishers. No serious writer should be without one.

Guest Post: Why Fan-Fiction is Still Literature, by Kate Croston

2011-09-30T06:37:00.000-07:00

Going on with the awesome guest posts I've been getting, today we have a wonderful post by Kate Croston about fan-fiction, a genre becoming more and more popular. Haven't heard of it? Think Sharon Latham's Pride and Prejudice continues Books (Pride and Prejudice really has been one of the most popular books for fan-fiction lately). Still don't know what it is? Read Kate's post.

Kate Croston is a freelance writer, holds a bachelors degree in Journalism and Mass Communication. She writes guest posts for different sites and loves contributing cheap internet service related topics. Questions or comments can be sent to: katecroston.croston09@gmail.com.

Why Fan-Fiction is Still Literature

Most people don’t wake up one day and think, “I want to write a novel”. There is always something that inspires them to write. It may be a family issue, a work thing, a great book, or even, gasp, a movie. Every writer has someone or something that originally inspires them. Something that keeps the fire lit as they burn their way through the pages. You must have passion and dedication to write something well.
Have you ever watched a movie or television show and thought, “I would have ended that differently”? Have you ever thought about what happened to the characters after the film was over? Have you ever wished that the writers would have explored the relationships more deeply? Of course you have. But have you ever taken pen to paper (or fingers to keyboard) and created your own version of events? Then you’ve written fan fiction.
The red-headed child of entertainment and literature, fan fiction has long been considered low writing. It is almost impossible to make money off of it, especially since the whole idea behind it is ‘stealing’ other writer’s characters. In a sense, that’s completely true. Fan fiction, at its base, is the manipulation of pre-set characters by someone who is not the original author. This can be in the form of parodies, canon and non-canon fiction. But does that make it ‘wrong’?
Fan fiction has been around as long as there have been stories told. How many versions of Robin Hood have you heard? How about Goldilocks? How many romance novels are based on Jane Austen’s works? How about Sherlock Holmes? Sure, the names of the characters might change, but you know the stereotypes: the tall, dark and handsome man, the beautiful damsel in distress, all iconic characters. What separates those from the highly criticized fan fiction community of today? The fact that the writers love the characters so much that they don’t even want to change their names.
But I still haven’t proven to you that this is literature. What is literature? Literature stands the test of time. Literature is well-written. Literature has strong characterization and style. I cannot claim that all fan fiction stands up to these tests of literary merit. But nor can anyone claim that all published books stand up to those tests. There will always be ‘popcorn’ literature: things written for entertainment and a laugh. Does that make it something to be looked down upon? Of course not.
Think about it like this: you are taking something that’s already created, breaking it down into its most basic components, and then rebuilding it in the image that you choose. It is both harder and simpler than starting from scratch. You have to work around idiosyncrasies, explain gaps, and deeply understand motivations that you may very well have no background in. As a woman, how do you go about understanding the male thought pattern? How do you see his deeper motivations, why he reacts the way he does, and what causes him to express those emotions the way he has? This is where it gets harder. When you have your own characters, you can give them the sex, the background, the reactions that you understand. But when you take another’s character, and you really respect and want to honor that character, you must open your understanding to a new level.
Don’t you think that through this struggle, new writers learn the value of knowing their characters? Not to mention the new aspects that modern fan fiction has brought into the equation. The ability for readers to review, to give feedback and criticism, this helps a new writer; improves and inures them. But will it stand the test of time? Will anything? Have we experienced a web-only literature that has endured? Have we had time, yet, to really know? And who are we claiming remembers? If it is just a cult, a small group of devoted followers, does that make it less suitable than a large crowd?
Fan fiction may be the fuel, the original inspiration the flame, but it is the writer that keeps it going. If, by writing fan fiction, an aspiring writer begins a novel, a screenplay, do we begrudge them their art? Do we deny their ability? Do we mock their talent because it is not appropriate? Is fan fiction merely writer’s graffiti, or is it a mural never commissioned?
Fanfiction is what literature might look like if it were reinvented from scratch after a nuclear apocalypse by a band of brilliant pop-culture junkies trapped in a sealed bunker. They don't do it for money. That's not what it's about. The writers write it and put it up online just for the satisfaction. They're fans, but they're not silent, couch-bound consumers of media. The culture talks to them, and they talk back to the culture in its own language.
—Lev Grossman, TIME, July 18, 2011

Worst Movies Ever Blogfest

2011-09-19T08:58:00.000-07:00

Alex J. Cavanaugh is hosting a very fun blogfest today, and since I haven't joined one of those in a while, I thought I should join this one. Rules are simple: just list up to ten of the worst movies you've ever seen and then comment on other blogs.

There are lot of bad movies out there, of course. But there are two that made me want to pull my eyeballs out. So, for lack of knowing how to narrow down the other ones, my list will be short. Here are the two movies I cringe just hearing the name:

My Super Ex-Grilfriend
Seriously. You see Luke Wilson and Umma Thurman and think, "ok, this will probably be cute." It's NOT. It's the most ridiculous movie ever. A jealous ex-girlfriend with super powers who decides to use her powers for evil when her ex starts dating someone else? Really? I kicked myself for ever renting it.

Beowulf
I never sleep in the theater. NEVER. But I did on this one. Actually, my fiancé, my friend and I all fell asleep (friend's boyfriend was the one who set us up on this evil trap). And quite honestly, I hope I snored. This was just awful.

So those are my two worst of all times. What movies would be on your list?

Guest Post: I Never Want to be a Writer, by Isabelle Mitchell

2011-09-14T13:40:00.000-07:00

Continuing with the wonderful guest posts that are coming in, here's one from Isabelle Mitchell on calling yourself a writer. Yes, I have written about this, but when does it ever get old? It's hard to really call yourself a writer. So congratulations to Isabelle for taking the first step!

If you want to guest blog here, let me know. I'll be glad to have you over.

I Never Want to be a Writer

My name is Isabelle and I might be a writer. I don’t feel comfortable labeling myself a writer because I don’t even know when you can officially introduce yourself that way. At least I can check self-doubts and insecurity off the list.
So, when are you a writer? When you have at least one unfinished manuscript in your drawer? When you have published a book? When you have rejection letters underneath that unfinished manuscript? Do I need to read more?
I don’t know. It seems to be one of those professions where formal training alone will not do the trick. It’s a mysterious mixture of practice and determination, sprinkled with skills and topped off with some talent.
I did not say the part with the formal training because I never had any myself – apart from the usual classes at school. I never took part in writing competitions or wrote for school newspapers. I just love to write. I love taking words and putting them together in ways nobody has before. I love that my words have the power to make people think, laugh or cry. Or everything at once and within a paragraph.
It took me a long time to realize how much I love to write. When I went back to school I had to start writing papers again and that’s when it hit me: I can just sit down and write. Anytime, anywhere and about anything. It’s what makes me happy when I am sad and happier when I am already happy. I always have notebooks and post-its ready in case I have an idea. I sometimes get up at night just to write down a thought that I probably can’t decipher in the morning. Am I a writer or just a light sleeper with bad handwriting?
Rainer Maria Rilke once wrote, “Find out the reason that commands you to write; see whether it has spread its roots into the very depth of your heart; confess to yourself you would have to die if you were forbidden to write.”
I could be all dramatic and say that I would most certainly die if I was forbidden to write; that writing is my passion and that I love it more than anything else. It’s all true but to be honest: Writing is better than finding the perfect pair of jeans on sale while eating the most delicious chocolate cupcake and finding $100 in my purse - and look, the rain just stopped and this guy over there asked me on a date! Yes, that’s how great it is.
I don’t know if writing is my life but it’s a big part of who I am. I don’t know if I will ever be qualified to call myself a writer. I don’t really care and I will follow the wise words of Pico Iyer: ‘The less conscious one is of being “a writer,” the better the writing.’ I think he might be right and in that case I don’t ever want to be a writer.

Guest post: The Year of the Superhero, by Mary Mary

2011-08-31T14:14:00.000-07:00

What was the last comic book you’ve read? Okay . . . How about this one. What was the last graphic novel you’ve read? Hm. Okay, I got it. What was the last superhero movie you’ve seen? If you had a quick answer (and perhaps it was the only question you answered) for question three, then you’re not alone. And chances are you’ve never picked up a comic book in your life. There’s a reason for that.

When most of us envision a superhero, we get flashes of those we’ve encountered on the Silver Screen. Perhaps you’re a diehard Tobey Maguire fan in his lovely spidey suit. Or maybe you had a thing for George Clooney and his nipple-busting Batman ensemble. Or perhaps you prefer the more recent fare – the well-sculpted Ryan Reynolds as the Green Lantern. Whatever your preference is, these characters first budded from the mind of creators who wanted to shape and mold a world both visually stimulating and with a storyline that would (hopefully)continue on for years to come.

In Hollywood and around the world, 2011 into 2012 will become the year of the Superhero. According to Screenrant.com, no less than nine superhero films will be released (and that’s not counting other geek-tastic fare such as Cowboys and Aliens, Mission Impossible IV, or Star Trek 2) during this time frame. That’s a lot of studio money being poured into Marvel and DC comics. But is there an audience for such films?

In order to answer that question, one first needs to look at the roots of the comic book and graphics novel industry. Unless you’re a diehard fan, most won’t recognize the first author of comic books, nor the first comic. In 1827 (Yes. 1827!), a Swiss named RudolpheTöpffer created the first known comic strip. His earliest known comic book, “The Adventures of Obadiah Oldbuck,” was released in 1837. Töpffer’s comic book was the first comic book to be published in the United States in 1842. He went on to publish seven graphic novels in his lifetime.

And the craze escalated from there!

Here are a few firsts:
• 1895 – Richard Outcault – first to use balloons, an outlined space on the page where the author writes what the character speaks, in a comic strip.
• 1896 – First Funny Book, “The Yellow Kid,” was printed into pulp magazine.
• 1900 – The terms “comics” and “comic strips” came into common use in the U.S.
• 1940 – “Brenda Star” – first cartoon strip written by a woman.
• New Fun – First comic book to have advertisements.

That’s all well and good, you might be thinking, but what about the SUPERHEROES!

The first mysterious character to be created by the minds of Jerry Siegel and Joe Schuster was Dr. Occult /Dr. Mystic, which came out in The Comic Magazine in 1936. And the first worldwide costumed hero? Why, The Phantom, that’s who! The Phantom debuted on February 17, 1936 and is still going strong today under writer and creator Lee Falk. I don’t know about you, but that takes one heck of a creative mind to keep a world swirling around the edges of darkness and light for 85 years. I think any author out there would envy the longevity of Falk’s career.

But which superhero finally broke the mold and became the superhero of all superheroes? Flash Gordon? Batman? The Shadow? None of the above. In June 1938, Action Comics #1 came out with the only hero who could lift cars and throw them, leap tall buildings, bounce bullets off his chest and, yet, he had his kryptonite – Superman. Many were soon to follow. Batman debuted in 1939, along with Wonderman (who eventually fell off the map due to copyright infringements on Superman’s character). Marvel Comics debuted in 1939 with characters such as the Human Torch, The Angel, and The Masked Raider. And the list goes on and on.

In retrospect, one could say that 1939 was actually the year of the superhero. The year art and a fascinating storyline came together to create a phenomenon. Comics in the United States have been going strong for well over 100 years, and there still exists a voracious appetite for new installments. At least for the films. Prices for the written art form have skyrocketed from $0.10 in 1962 to $3.99 in 2010, and they’ve been relegated to the fateful “collectors” status (meaning, hard to find unless you’re a true reader, and overly expensive, to boot). Sure the characters of today are edgier and might cause a bit of controversy (just take a look at the newly unveiled half-black, half-Hispanic Spider-Man, Miles Morales, or the tightly-clad reboot to Superwoman), but in order to keep a genre fresh and an audience on the edge of their seats there needs to be a change-up from time to time.

And that’s how everything circles back around to 2011. The edgier superheroes are coming out of hiding. Batman has a darkness to him when once those films seemed like a crass joke with the Joker and his outlandish make-up lording it over cotton candy sets filled with ridiculously dressed characters (Poison Ivy anyone?). Even the newest Spider-Man installment (set to release in July 2012) fades to black around the edges with a new director (Marc Webb) and new star (Andrew Garfield) in the lead. That’s fine by me. I was never a big fan of Tobey Maguire to begin with.

And there’s still money to be made. When the top five grossing superhero movies of all time (The Dark Knight, Spider-Man, Spider-Man 2, Spider-Man 3, and Iron Man) have been released in the last ten years, then you know that if the comic books themselves aren’t selling well today then at least the movies still are! Again, what was the last comic book you’ve read?

Guest post: Guest blogging is a great opportunity, by Julie Anne Lindsey

2011-08-18T14:02:00.000-07:00

All week I've been thinking I need to get to the second part of those posts about Brazilian Literature. And all week I haven't had the time to do it. And I've felt guilty. And then today I got this guest post by my wonderful critique partner Julie Anne Lindsey, and I laughed out loud because it's so fitting! So I apologize for the delay on the post on Brazilian Literature. I haven't forgotten about it and I promise it's coming. In the meantime, I give you this great post by Julie!

GUEST BLOGGING IS A GREAT OPPORTUNITY!

I’m a guilty girl. I struggle and frizz my hair out over what to blog on every single day. Then, when I get more than one or two requests for a guest post I go into a full-on panic mode. What will I write about? What if I’m not interesting? Will they throw virtual tomatoes? You name it, I worry about it.

The thing is, thank heavens, after my complete freak out, I always rally. Based on a similar spaz-attack I had this week, I’ve decided to blog about guest blogging. Yes, it sounds nutty at first, but it needs done.

Guest blogging is a fabulous opportunity to you (and me) as a writer. Stopping by another writer’s blog moves us out of our comfort zone, and into the eyes of new friends. Writing is a tough road to choose and networking is the absolute best way to stay positive and motivated and …well happy. On the flip side, guest blogging gives the blogger you stand in for an extra day of writing without the burden of a blog post. SO, it’s a win-win.

Guest posting is a chance to think critically about what matters to you and how you can address those issues. Blogging is an issue for me. I try to be diligent and blog every day. In the midst of life and other writer-related responsibilities, it can be nearly impossible to find the time. This is where guest blogging becomes a Godsend. First, as I get guest bloggers, it frees me up and that is a priceless gift. I appreciate my guest more than I can ever express with words. I also appreciate hosts, like Gabi *hugs*. It’s through the fabulous network of writing blogs that I get away from my blog addy and out into the blogosphere. If it wasn’t for guest blogging, I’d never get away.

So, if you’ve ever considered guest posting, I implore you, please do it. Don’t be afraid to ask bloggers if they’d like a guest post from you. I promise they’ll SQUEE and dance over the gift. You can tweet your willingness or just hit the contact button on your favorite blog. If you don’t blog, this is an awesome opportunity to get your name and personality out there without the ongoing commitment of a blog. If you already blog, moving around will increase your traffic and widen your network. Guest blogging is too often underrated as a tool. It’s an opportunity. Grab hold! Carpe diem!

Julie Anne Lidnsey is a mama, wifey, reader, writer blogger, hopelessly addicted to YA, caffeine, social media and Poptarts. You can find her lurking around the Internet at all hours amped up on coffee & wielding a book. She's also the author of an upcoming romance series Seeds of Love for the Turquoise Morning Press & the Killer Confections Saga at kNight Romance. She's blogging her journey to publication at Musings from the Slush Pile, where she shares writing tips, author interviews, personal experience, and industry news.

Blog Hop - Odd book names and translations

2011-08-12T07:46:00.000-07:00

I was checking today's blog hops and saw that this week's question at Crazy For Books's Book Blogger Hop was pretty fun, so I decided to join. Here's the question:

“Let’s talk crazy book titles! Highlight one or two (or as many as you like!) titles in your personal collection that have the most interesting titles! If you can’t find any, feel free to find one on the internet!”

Now, since I've been talking about Brazilian books lately (and I will post more on that next week!), the first thing that popped into my mind is how they usually translate titles to really weird things in Brazil. It happens for both books and movies. It comes out in the US with one title, and then, instead of just translating, they come up with a completely unrelated title.

The latest one that made me laugh was the Brazilian title for Stieg Larson's The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo. Apparently, Brazilian editors thought the best possible translation for that would be O Homem Que Não Amava As Mulheres, which means The Man Who Didn't Love Women. Just... I mean... How??? When my cousin mentioned she'd read it and loved it, I honestly thought she'd gone into a self-help phase. Took me a while to realize she was actually talking about a book on my TBR list.

Another one that annoyed me was The Time Traveler's Wife (one of the best books in history, by the way, in case you haven't read it). They translated the book title correctly, A Mulher do Viajante do Tempo. But for some unexplainable reason, they named the movie Te Amarei Para Sempre (I'll Love You Forever). And once it came out, they put jackets in the properly named books: "the book that inspired the movie I'll Love You Forever". In what universe does that makes sense?

And, of course, there are the love-titles. Every single romantic movie that comes out must have "love" in the title. So A Walk To Remember became A Love To Remember (at least this time they gave both the book and the movie the same title). Failure To Launch became something like Mischiefs of Love. The Switch became Coincidences of Love. Save The Last Dance is In The Swing of Love. Run, Fat Boy, Run is Marathon of Love. Even I Am Sam became A Love Lesson.

So, yeah, I went a little beyond the question here, but to sum up, the weirdest titles for me are the weird translations. And know this: if you write romance and get a movie deal, in Brazil it will be called something of love. We're all about the love around here.

Brazilian Literature Guide: starting up

2011-08-10T08:40:00.000-07:00

A few days ago, I was asked on Twitter what Brazilian books all serious readers should read. There’s a lot of it. And I’m thrilled people care to know, because so many good novels have been written in Brazil over the years. As I thought about it, I realized there was way too much to cover in one post. So I’ll do it in two or three. And, of course, I won’t be able to cover it all. Through these posts, I’ll give you some of my favorites, and some of the most famous, limited by my own opinions and by what’s available in English. Hope you get something out of it!

Let’s start with the late 1800s and early 1900s. That’s when a lot of what’s important in Brazilian literature was written. Even now, it’s impossible to find a high school kid who hasn’t read at least some of the authors from this period. It starts with romantism and branches out to other styles, like realism and naturalism.

First, José de Alencar. He was one of the most important Romantic authors of this time, and there’s no way to know Brazilian literature without reading him. Among his many themes (urban, Northeastern, etc.), indigenous was definitely the one that stuck out. His most famous works, Iracema and The Guarani, are about Brazilian Indians. (I’d start with Iracema, it’s shorter and lighter.) Unfortunately, I couldn’t find many others translated to English. His last novel, Reincarnation, is one of my favorite books of all times, but I couldn’t find it in English anywhere on the internet… But if you want to read one of his urban works, try Senhora, which is also very good. His work is usually uncoventional love story meets tragedy with a hint of irony. Pretty great!

Then we go on to Machado de Assis. He also started as a Romantic, then branched out to Realism. Those are his most important works, known as the “Realist Trilogy”. They are Dom Casmurro, The Posthumous Memoirs of Bras Cubas and Quincas Borba. Really, it’s hard to choose. Dom Casmurro is maybe one of the greatest books in Brazilian literature, about a man’s jealousy and his suspicions of his wife (amazing how well that works when theres no DNA testing). The wife, Capitu, is a remarkable character, and her name has become a synonym for betrayal, fascination and mystery. But if you want sarcasm, go with Bras Cubas. You won’t believe how snarky it is for something written so long ago. (Is it too obvious I love those two books?)

Then we move to Aluisio de Azevedo and his naturalism. When you read The Slum, you can smell it, you can feel it. The mess, the stink, the lust. Everything is very sensorial in this book. One of a kind, really. (Don't read it during a trip in which you're sharing a room with your mother, like I did. It'll make you blush.)

And then we get to the pre-modern times, in the early 1900s. From that period, Euclides da Cunha stands out with his “Os Sertões” (which I think was translated to Rebellion in the Backlands, or Backlands: The Canudos Campaign). This kind of portrait of reality will lead to the Moderns and the week of 1922, which I’ll mention in the next post.

For the late 1800s and early 1900s, that’s your best of the best. Of course there are many other renowned authors from this time, but if you read these four, you’ll be well in tune with what Brazilian Literature was all about.

Hope you’ll read at least some of them, and hope you like this little guide. Oh, and thanks to my crit girl Julie Anne Lindsey and tweep @CohibaSlim for giving me the idea to blog about this!

So, have you read anything from Brazil?

You can now post your entries for the contest!

2011-08-07T08:48:00.000-07:00

You can now post your entries for the Get Your Foot in the Door Contest! Just go to the launching post and post your entry on the comments section. You may enter as many manuscripts as you want, but you can't enter the same manuscript twice for different judges. Go ahead and enter! I'll send the entries to the judges on Tuesday night, so you have until then to give me your best one-sentence pitch and first paragraph!

The rules for the new contest are up!

2011-08-01T14:39:00.000-07:00

I have launched the very first writing contest over at my new website, and I'm quite thrilled about it. This time, I got not only one, but FOUR wonderful guest judges, all of them acquiring editors at Sourcebooks. These are editors who don't usually take unagented submissions, so I'm really happy I get to offer my readers this opportunity.

Anyone with a finished manuscript in the following genres can enter: romance (all subgenres), women's fiction, commercial fiction, literary fiction, YA (all subgenres), MG and children's fiction. So I hope you'll stop by, sign up and tweet, blog and facebook about it. Just go to www.gabrielalessa.com/blog to know more about it.

Spots open for guest bloggers!

2011-07-28T08:42:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I had guest bloggers on this blog, and I think it's time I open this space again for writers out there. I love these opportunities the blogging community offers. For suh a lonely profession, we're a very sociable bunch, and I love that!

So I'm opening this blog for guest posts. Anything goes, as long as it's about writing/reading/critiquing and hasn't been discussed lately here. If you're interested, email me a short pitch at gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com. Hope to have lots of wonderful writers around here!

Oh, and just to let you know, I'm available for guest posts too! Want me on your blog? Let me know and I'll come up with something fresh.

**If you sent it to the email gabriela@gabrielalessa.com on Monday or Tuesday, I probably didn't get it. Please re-send to gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com.

Follow the new blog!

2011-07-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to let you all know that the new blog at the new website is up and running (today I posted a Q&A with Carina Press editor Angela James). And it now has a Google Friend Connect widget, just like the one I have here! But the poor thing is lonely.... So why don't you stop by and follow me there too? People who start following in July get a free 15-page sample edit! You don't want to miss that!

Oh, and also, the enxt awesome contest I have in the works will be over there. And you really, really don't want to miss that!

Hope to see you around!

Blogoversary, gifts and celebrations!

2011-07-16T03:00:00.000-07:00

My baby blog is now one year old! A lot has happened since then -- including my realization that what I want in life certainly includes editing. So now it's time to take a new step.

As you all know, I've launched a new website, www.gabrielalessa.com. And what were the big news I had for today? I am now offering editing services. I'm very excited about this, and I hope you'll be too!

To celebrate this new step and the blogoversary, I'm giving a gift to those who stop by today. Everyone who goes to the new website and subscribes to it gets a FREE 30-page sample edit, plus 30% off any services you hire!

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead, subscribe to gabrielalessa.com and claim your prize! That offer is only good for today, July 16th. If you subscribe between July 17th and July 31st, you get a FREE 15-page sample edit, plus an extra 10% off any services you hire.

When you subscribe, you can manage your options so that you choose how often you want to get e-mails -- my goal is not to fill up your inbox, I promise! Once you subscribe, you'll get the sample edit and keep in tune with what's happening on the new website, where the rest of the month will be dedicated to editing, with great content and wonderful special guests!

So please do stop by and check out the new website. And thank you so much for following this blog, commenting, and making my blogger life so much brighter! I hope you'll stick around for the years to come!

Plot the hell out of it

2011-07-11T07:38:00.000-07:00

Yeap. That's what I've been doing this past week. Plotting.

That is one of the biggest lessons I took from RWA. You might be a pantser. You might believe in getting inspired and writing the hell out of you. But if there's no plotting at all involved whatsoever? Things are going to get damn hard.

So I've been doing a lot of plotting lately, and not just on my writing. I've been plotting the next steps on my career. I've been plotting my day (yeah, I have to get a bit better on that one). I've been trying to be more organized. And, of course, I've been plotting my writing, and it's so very helpful. Things flow better. And, amazingly, I'm more creative.

So I'll come up with more soon (you do remember the announcement I'm making on Saturday, July 16th, right?). In the meantime, I suggest you do some plotting. Really. Go ahead. I'll wait.

Inspiration, networking and my impressions of RWA (and book giveaway)

2011-07-02T09:59:00.000-07:00

Ok. After three insanely busy days, my first RWA is over. I'm both exhausted and thrilled. If you've never been to a RWA National, you should definitely start saving money for the next one, because IT. IS. WORTH. IT. Considering you are a romance or women's fiction writer, of course. Well, I guess it might be good for single men too. Two thousand women is quite a lot. But for this post, let's just focus on the romance writing thing, that's probably best. (Sorry, guys.)

Seriously, RWA was so much better than I could've ever imagined. I met so many people, watched so many workshops, learned so much and, most importantly, was so inspired. There were moments when ideas were flashing through my mind and I actually got goosebumps. It made me feel like a writer again. But, of course, writing is made of contradictions, and so is RWA. It's inspiring and overwhelming at the same time. Just like you feel the support of these two thousand writers, you also come to the realization that only a few will get published. And that sucks. But then you start talking to someone, go to a great workshop and you feel better.You learn. And you start believing in yourself all over again. (God, are we emotional rollercoasters!)

So for the next few days I'll be writing mostly about RWA and what I learned there, both from the workshops and the great people I met. And, of course, I'll be giving away books!!!!!

BOOK GIVEAWAY (US/Canada only)

As of this moment, I have 25 books in my room: one that I brought with me to read on the plane, 24 that I got at RWA. It was hilarious to see all those women running towards tables and tables of free books. Free books! It was like having a table of cupcakes at fat camp.

But, as much as I love them, I can't keep the all. The guy in customs will never believe my declaration and I'll be arrested for smuggling romance novels into Brazil. So, sad as it is, I'll have to part with some of my beloved. I'll still bring my favorites with me, of course! But some have to go.

So here are the (11!) books I'll be giving away:

No Mercy - Sherrilyn Kenyon
Blood Trinity - Sherrilyn Kenyon and Dianna Love
Born of Shadows - Sherrilyn Kenyon (HARDCOVER)

The First Love Cookie Club - Lori Wilde

A Secret Affair - Mary Balogh

Ravishing in Red - Madeline Hunter
Provocative in Pearls - Madeline Hunter

The Fallen: Raziel - Kristina Douglas

The Heir - Grace Burrowes

The Templar Legacy - Steve Barry

The Summer Garden - Paullina Simons

Awesome, right? And what do you do to win? Follow the blog and follow me on twitter (@gabilessa). Leave a comment on this post with your email address and your top 3 choices. Also mention who you are on Twitter. If you tweet about this, you get an extra entry (if you do, mention that in your comment).

Winners will be announced on Tuesday, July 5th. Don't you just love free books?

About NYC and wedding gowns

2011-06-26T15:54:00.000-07:00

I could talk about my little shopping spree yesterday (bought more for other than for myself, since American pants don't seem to fit my Brazilian body). Or I could talk about my stupidity waiting half an hour for a train on the wrong level of the station (I suspected out something was wrong the second time the voice said "the next E train is now arriving" and it didn't show). And I could certainly rave about my experience at the MoMa (even though my trip there was shorter than planned, due to the subway fiasco).

But the thing is, I went wedding dress shopping today. And then everything seems like kind of a blur. I had loved a whole bunch of artists at MoMa, and their names had stuck with me. But after that trip to Kleinfeld, the only artist names I can think of are Monique Lhuillier, Carolina Herrera and Kenneth Pool. All that lace and tulle and embroidery just made me feel so happy that I've just been walking around in a white and ivory daze ever since.

The one dress I was in love with was out of stock, but the experience was still wonderful. And the people were so nice! I was a bit worried because I've been to bridal salons where the people were bitchy and made me feel like a cow for not fitting into their size 6 samples. But this time the consultants were nice, the dresses were flattering and everything felt like a dream! Well, except for the part when they put me in front of a webcam for my mom to see the dress I'd loved, and she said she wasn't feeling it. Then I think my dad must've scolded her (he's a "the bride gets what she wants and everyone shuts up" kind of dad), because she softened her speech and said she was just worried I'd go buying the first dress

But, oh, well. I have a couple more appointments tomorrow (yes, I'm a wedding addict), and if I still love that first one after that, I'll convince her. But what can I say? This is the kind of experience I could write pages and pages about. Call me a romantic, call me girly, but the truth is there's nothing that can top feeling beautiful on a wedding dress. Not even the glamorous streets of NYC.

P.S. - I really did love MoMa though. The "Impressions from South Africa" exhibit was strong, beautiful, heartbreaking and hilarious all at once. Highly recommend it!

Who doesn't love a surprise?

2011-06-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

On July 16th, this blog, this sweet baby blog will be one year old. Ah, time flies... My baby is already one!

To celebrate, I'll be doing something quite big. A surprise!!! It will involve my new website. And it will launch a new side of me. And it will have several brilliant guests, and many prizes. So, here's what I'll say for now: mark that date on your calendar. On July 16th, go to www.gabrielalessa.com to find out what this is all about. It'll be awesome, I can guarantee you that. More info to come soon.

In the meantime, I'm arriving in NYC Friday evening, and I'll be enjoying the city for almost two weeks. I'll keep you posted! So come back here for posts about NYC, RWA, my first ever 4th of July in America and my search for a wedding gown. Lots will be going on these next two weeks!

And the WINNERS are...

2011-06-19T19:20:00.000-07:00

Oh, yes. We have winners. I told you Weronika Janczuk was awesome! And fast!

So here they are:

3rd place (query critique) - Cyndy Aleo

2nd place (critique of query + 10 pages) - Gina Ciocca

And the big winner...

1st Place (critique of query + 25 pages) - Melinda Williams

Congratulations, girls!!!

Now, why them? Here's what Weronika had to say about her choice:

"First and foremost, I am struck by strong, tight, well-paced writing. Among the three winners here, I was drawn to scenes that reflected the characters, their backgrounds and personalities, and their motivations in small spaces without making some of the more common mistakes -- stating the obvious about a relationship (aka, telling versus showing that relationship's status and "quality"), creating an imbalance of sensuality in a scene (using too much of a specific type of language, or not enough), adding an unnecessary sense of awkwardness, etc. The specific details, the references, the little moments matter most."

So there you go! Congratulations to Melinda, Gina and Cyndy! Your entries were truly wonderful! To claim your prizes, just email me at gabriela@gabrielalessa.com and I'll tell you how to get your critique from Weronika.

To all of you who entered, thank you so much! Hope you'll keep coming back and entering more contests - you never know when it's going to be your turn! Oh, and by the way, Weronika says that all contestants are free to query her and mention they entered this contest -- if you were a finalist or honorable mention, let her know as well!

Hope you had as much fun as I did with this contest! Thanks everyone and congratulations once more to our big winners!

Honorable Mention Prizes!

2011-06-15T20:15:00.000-07:00

Ok, so, as I mentioned on the previous post, I decided I'd make a drawing so that at least some of my honorable mentions could win prizes, since I loved their entries so much! So I made four drawings for the four prizes on random.org. For those drawings, I used numbers 1 to 6, in the order honorable mentions were announced in the previous post. So Laura was 1, Nicole was 2, Elizabeth 3, Jeanmarie 4, Tanya 5 and Tania 6. And here's what I got:

WINNERS OF TWO 25-PAGE CRITIQUES BY GABRIELA LESSA

Nicole M. White and Jeanmarie Anaya

WINNERS OF TWO $10 AMAZON GIFT CERTIFICATES

Laura Chesterson and Tania Walsh

So there you have it! Congratulations! Thanks for participating with such great entries. I loved them and I hope you'll enter more often!

To claim your prizes, email me at gabriela@gabrielalessa.com.

We have finalists!

2011-06-15T10:44:00.000-07:00

This was so absurdly hard. You’ve made me feel warm and romantic for days, and I’ve been rereading entries and cursing myself for saying we’d have just seven finalists. I swear I could’ve easily chosen at least 12 (probably 15), and it would’ve been an outstanding team of finalists.

But, well, I had to choose. It was really hard and at the end I had to be really picky. (I’ll post something tomorrow explaining some of the tiny things that made me eliminate people.) And even then I was too bummed to have to cut some of these entries. So, first, let me give you my honorable mentions. These entries were outstanding and really almost made it to finalists. These names will be entered in a drawing two $10 Amazon gift certificates and two 25-page critiques from me (I know I’m not Weronika, but I’ll do the best I can). So, here they are, in entry number order:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

5 – Laura Chesterson
10 – Nicole M. White
11 – Elizabeth Arroyo
18 – Jeanmarie Anaya
19 – Tanya Reimer
21 – Tania Walsh

You were really amazing, girls, and I had a very hard time letting your entries go. Thanks for entering and be sure to check back for the results of the drawing! You can still win Amazon gift certificates and critiques from me!

Ok. These finalists are all really different from each other. Some of them made me laugh, some made me cry. Some had young MCs, some had older ones. Some showed new love, some showed love that has been there for a long time. But they all made me feel something. They were all strongly written and made me want to read more. And they all gave me some great version of love.

Deep breath. Drum rolling please. Our amazing FINALISTS are…

1 – Christie Koester
2 – Kate Larkindale
3 – Cyndy Aleo
4 – Gina Ciocca
14 – Meredith Jaeger
27 – Melanie Stanford
28 – Melinda Williams

Congratulations! Your entries will be forwarded to Weronika and the winners should be announced on or before July 8th.

Thank you so much to all of you who entered. I had a great time reading these entries! Hope the comments were helpful and hope you’ll come back and enter more contests. Good luck to our finalists!

An interview with guest judge Weronika Janczuk

2011-06-10T22:47:00.000-07:00

It's almost Valentine's Day here! I'm already enjoying my Valentine's Day weekend snuggled up with my fiancé. (We had fondue and wine tonight! Yum!) If you're among the people who will be joining me Sunday in this celebration, you probably already have your love scene all worked up and ready to go. And you probably can't wait to get your work in front of our lovely guest judge, literary agent Weronika Janczuk.

As you probably already know by now, Weronika has some exciting news. She just moved to a new agency, and you might have questions about where that leaves you when trying to get her representation. So she's agreed to ask some questions about her new position and about what she's looking for in this contest. (You don't know about the contest? Go here to learn more and enter!)

So here it is, Weronika Janczuk's interview! Hope it'll answer your questions. And, of course, hope to read your entry for the contest! Whatever your genre is, don't you just love some romance?

Gabriela Lessa - First of all, congratulations on moving to with Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd.. That's exciting news! What made you choose that agency and what kind of work do you hope to do there?

Weronika Janczuk - Typically, with moves like this, an agent isn’t considering multiple choices—an opportunity arises, and an agent will either take or not take it. I chose to take it, as I’ve worked with Lynn in a different capacity before, and really appreciate and enjoy the way she handles her business, the authors she represents, and the room for growth there will be in the agency for fiction writers especially. Since our interests, non-fiction-wise especially, match very closely, it seemed like it would be a good fit.

GL - Now that you're with a new agency, does anything change? Do you still represent the same genres, or will you be changing your focus?

WJ - Everything remains exactly the same for my clients and me, though I hope that my YA list will grow more quickly, especially since there is only one—versus three—agent to choose from.

GL - Can writers already query you at the new agency? Are your guidelines still the same?

WJ - Yep, and yes—all of the specifics can be found on my website (http://www.weronikajanczuk.com).

GL - What about people who had already queried you at D4EO? Should they re-send their queries?

WJ - Almost everyone who queried me at D4EO should have heard from me. If they don’t by the end of June, they should re-query me at LCF, but otherwise, I brought the “old” queries with me to the “new.”

GL - Well, now on to this contest. You'll be judging love scenes from manuscripts in all adult and YA genres. What are you looking for in those scenes?

WJ - This is a pretty open-ended question, as it really depends on what the scene is needed for, what the author’s goal is, and whether or not s/he achieves it. On an overall level, I’ll be looking to see how much “work” occurred within the space of the scene—was the writer able to make the reader feel the heat of the moment, the flirtation, the lightheartedness or the awkwardness or the seriousness or the fragility of the moment, etc. It all comes back to emotions being evoked, as much as possible, in a way that is relatively fresh, unique, smart, silly, etc.—appropriate to the genre, the characters, and the need of the developing romance (or lack thereof).

GL - Are romantic scenes fitting to any genre? Do people need to worry about that?

WJ - I think romantic scenes can fit all genres, yes; whether they fit each book is a different question entirely. I’m not sure that contestants need to worry about this, unless their scene layers both the love scene with elements of the genre—a paranormal romance, for example, with characters who are perhaps a little quirky: Be sure that it works, that it clicks, that it’s cohesive, that nothing distracts the reader, that everything really adds weight to whatever emotions you’re trying to carry through, without one element winning out over the other in a way that destroy’s the scene’s purpose.

GL - Do you have a favorite romantic moment from a published novel? Why that one?

WJ - I adore absolutely all types of “romantic” books—from the very old, to the new and the contemporary—but my favorite romantic moments are not necessarily the best romantic moments overall, but in the context of the books and the characterization, they knocked it out of the ballpark. More traditionally, love every single romantic moment between Elizabeth and Darcy in PRIDE & PREJUDICE (world play! wittiness! Characters unwilling to admit their true feelings! tension!); also adore when Rachel returns to Noah after speaking with Lon at the hotel in THE NOTEBOOK (I love a good scarred/hurting male lead, especially if he’s sympathetic). On the very much opposite end, one really hot contemporay I loved was NEVER TOO HOT by Bella Andre—as long as the emotion and characterization are potent, you have me hooked.

Well, now you know what she's looking for. Ready to enter? Then I look forward to reading your work. Good luck!

Love all year long Contest (With prizes from agent Weronika Janczuk!)

2011-06-06T05:20:00.000-07:00

I know you've all celebrated Valentine's Day already. But I haven't. You all know I'm Brazilian, right? Well, here in Brazil, we celebrate Valentine's Day on June 12th. Which means this Sunday I'll be all snuggled up with my fiancé enjoying a romantic day. Oh, yeah! I love celebrating Valentine's Day! And I thought you'd like to celebrate it with me! (Not by being part of the snuggling, of course. That'd be weird.)

So I'm having a contest! (Yeah, I knew you'd like that better than snuggling with me.) Yes, that's right. To celebrate Brazilian Valentine's Day, I'm having a love scene contest this weekend, judged by literary agent Weronika Janczuk, of Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd.!

Are you excited already? Read on to know the details, then!

THE ENTRY

To enter this contest, you should post a love scene from a finished manuscript on your blog this Sunday, June 12th. The excerpt must have a maximum length of 750 words, but it could be less if it ends on a hook (remember, sometimes less really is more). There is no minimum word count.

The scene we're looking for can show love in all kinds of ways, in all kinds of genres. The scene should be romantic, but not necessarily a kissing scene. We're looking for any kind of love here. Cozy, sweet, complicated, new, old, platonic, mysterious, full of tension, warm... As longs as feelings between a couple are being shown, that's fine with me. Give us anything that will make us tingle and feel the love, which could include or not physical manifestations. Feel free to submit a scene full of kissing and sexual tension, but don't feel obligated to do so! Platonic scenes of love that is still blossoming or that the MCs haven't owned up to yet are welcome too. All kinds of love are accepted here! (Wow, I feel almost hippie now!)

That said, be careful with those physical manifestations. Sex scenes are okay, as long as they're not explicit and help move the plot along. In our guest judge's words, "no sex for the purpose of sex; sex needs to contribute to the romantic arc in some way." Think more erotic romance, less erotica.

But even if there is no sex, every love scene should somehow move the plot along. Other than feeling all warm and fuzzy, we also want to get a general idea of your story and see where it's going. The ideal entry will have more than just love (although the love really is important, in case I haven't mentioned that). "Anything that is well written, appropriate, and appropriately hot/emotional," said our judge.

WHO CAN ENTER

Finished manuscripts ONLY. No WIPS, please.

This time tere will also be some genre limitations. This is an Adult Fiction and YA ONLY contest. No MG or chidlren's fiction for this particular contest, please. Within Adult and YA fiction, any genres will be accepted.

HOW TO ENTER

Enter your link on the Mr. Linky below. On Sunday, June 12th, post your entry on your blog. Then go to the other blogs and comment on people's entries (be nice!). Use the feedback you get from your readers to improve your scene, then email it to me at gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com. Put "LOVE CONTEST ENTRY" on the subject line and attach your entry as a .doc file.

Here is how your entry should be formatted:

Name: Awesome Writer
Title: My Super Finished Manuscript
Genre: Something adult or YA
Entry word count: No more than 750
Manuscript word count: A number completely appropriate to my genre
Link number: (This is the number your link is at on the Mr. Linky tool. Just so I know I have everyone's entries.)
Scene (750 words max.)

Email me your entry by June 13th (Monday) at 11:59 PM (EDT). Please don't send it in late, I have a lot of reading to do before I can forward it to our judge!

FINALISTS

We'll have a minimum of 7 finalists on this contest, regardless of the number of entries.

BUT, as (very smartly) suggested by Ms. Janczuk, if we have lots of entries, then the number of finalists will be 20% of all entries. That means the more entries we have, the more finalists we have! (Great, right?) If 20% is a decimal number, I'll round it up. But remember, I'll only count as entries the ones I get on my email, as .doc files and with the proper subject on the subject line. So if there are 100 links here but I only get 20 emails, I'll consider those 20 as the total number of entries.

Finalists will be chosen by me and announced here by Wednesday, June 15th. Their entries will be forwarded to guest judge Weronika Janczuk.

THE JUDGE

Our guest judge will be literary agent Weronika Janczuk (applause, please). Weronika Janczuk (pronounced: Veronica Janchuck) is a literary agent with Lynn C. Franklin Associates, Ltd., in addition to being a writer, student, lit mag editor (x2), Pole, and more. Even though she just moved to a new agency and is very busy, she has kindly agreed to be a guest judge here, which is beyond thrilling!

Both Weronika’s love for writing and her love of reading contributed to her professional interest in publishing. Her career began in 2009, where she interned with Brian Farrey at Flux/Llewellyn in Minneapolis/St. Paul. She also worked in different capacities with Jenny Bent at The Bent Agency, Kathleen Anderson at Anderson Literary Management, Mary Kole at Andrea Brown Literary Agency, and Bob Diforio at D4EO Literary Agency, where she also worked as an agent.

On a more personal note, she was born in Ontario, Canada, a few months after her parents immigrated, and since then has lived in Ontario, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. She now divides her time between New York City and the Twin Cities.

She speaks/reads/writes both English and Polish fluently and hopes to add French to the list before long, and she writes YA, literary, and historical fiction.

Weronika finds time for all of these interests by reading quickly, watching very little television, and living with less sleep on the weekends. She does, however, love to spend a bit of time now and then with ‘80s and ’90s music, witty (published) novels, funky art, and nice, good, smart people.

You can learn more about Weronika and her submission guidelines on her website, www.weronikajanczuk.com.

WINNERS

Winners will be chosen by Weronika and announced by Friday, July 8th.

THE PRIZES

Ha! That's the part you wanted, right? Well, here are our wonderful prizes by our wonderful judge Weronika Janczuk.

1st place: Critique of query + 25 pages
2nd place: Critique of query + 10 pages
3rd place: Critique of query

Ready?

Ok, that was long. So to summarize.

1 - This is a love scene contest judged by agent Weronika Janczuk.
2 - To enter this contest, you must enter your link on Mr. Linky below.
3 - Post your entry on June 12th and get feedback. Your entry should be an excerpt from a finished adult or YA manuscript, and it shouldn't be longer than 750 words.
4 - Polish entry and email it to me as a .doc file no later than June 13th, 11:59 PM (EDT). My email address is gabrielalessacarvalho@gmail.com and your subject line should read "LOVE CONTEST ENTRY".
5 - Check back on June 15th to see if you're a finalist.
6 - Check back on July 8th to see if you're a winner.

Really ready? Then go! Enter below and show me some romance!

It's RWA month!!!!

2011-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

In a few weeks, I'll be in NYC for RWA. I have signed up for the conference, booked my tickets and hotel, built my workshop schedule. I'm ready to go! Except for one little thing... I don't know anyone who'll be there...

So, if you're going, why don't you leave a comment? I'm excited I'll finally get a chance to meet some of my tweeps and blog followers in person! So drop a note and maybe we can meet there.

Oh, and also, I'm a first timer. Have any tips? Do share!

I've added a Mr. Linky below. Share your link and make sure to check out the other blogs, so we can start networking! Let the RWA connecting begin!

Half way through

2011-05-27T22:57:00.000-07:00

This whole halfway through thing can get kind of bittersweet, can't it? I guess it all depends on whether you're a glass half full or a glass half empty kind of person. Well, either way, I'm half way through my manuscript. Half of it is done. And then there's the other half...

Right now I'm trying to figure out career paths and pretty much everything else related to what it is that I do so..... Can't quite figure out the half ways at the moment. I just have a feeling this will not be my first half way through.

So you tell me. Where are you in your career? What are your halfways? And how do you approach them?

The Power of Tension Blogfest

2011-05-24T11:51:00.001-07:00

I finally came out of my inertia this week and went back to writing. About time! So it was quite fitting to find the Power of Tension Blogfest being hosted by Rachel Morgan and Cally Jackson this week. So I dusted off my manuscript and found a nice love-tension scene. To check the other scenes or enter the contest, stop by Rachel's or Cally's blog.

Here's mine. Hope you like it!

************

I’m talking to the girls, my back to the path that leads to the main gate, when Julia waves excitedly and Laura’s big green eyes pop in excitement. I turn around quickly, my heart beating fast. My eyes fall on him and I have to pay close attention to my jaw to make sure it doesn’t drop to an embarrassing level.

His beautiful skin is chocolate-colored and smooth, just like Denzel Washington’s – but Marcelo might just be even better looking. His black hair is cut really short, almost entirely shaved, and I want to rub my hand against it. I can feel the butterflies in my stomach as he approaches, but I can't stop staring. He’s wearing a fashionable button shirt in red plaid, the kind very few guys can pull off. He isn’t tall, we're exactly the same height, but he still manages to fill the place with his presence, even being side by side with his much taller and bulkier friend - it actually took me a while to notice the friend was even here, since my eyes are glued on Marcelo. His beautiful, narrow eyes look like they have just been carved on his face by an artist, who then added long, perfectly curled, black lashes that any girl would die for. I blush just looking at them. But my eyes quickly drop to his lips – his gorgeous, full, soft lips that magically open in a big, bright smile, showing his perfectly white teeth. I’m hooked.

“Well, hello, dear!”

Julia gives him a big friendly hug, and he smiles again as he hugs her. He then kisses Laura and Elisa on the cheek and they go into sweet-girl-mode, smiling and saying how great it is to see him again.

And then he turns to me.

************

So, what do you think? Any tips to increase the tension?

Oh, and there's a new contest coming up on this blog in June - a great one! So stay tuned!

The joy of critiquing (or I have a dream)

2011-05-19T06:17:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been thinking I might make a better editor than a writer. No, I'm not giving up on writing. I'm just saying that critiquing has showed me how amazing it is to read a new story, make suggestions, try to help someone and make her story wonderful, and then root for that story. It must be an amazing feeling to be an editor. I've always felt that way, even when I was a reporter. And having a critique group has made that feeling rise again.

There's just something so liberating about working on someone else's story. It makes me see things clearer and somehow I feel more freedom than I do with my own story. So I'm coming out there and saying it: I have a dream of being an editor, or an agent. I dream of discovering new voices and working on other people's stories as much as I dream of seeing my own work out there. As one of my critique partners puts it, I guess I'm just a good cheerleader. One with a critical eye and a talent for giving advice (a lot more than for following it).

So there you have it. That's my dream job. Consider it a first step for maybe taking a leap. What about you? What is your dream?

The new mistakes that come with taking advice (and how that's not so bad)

2011-05-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

I can’t imagine what it was like to write before agents and published authors blogged and tweeted. I find something helpful everyday and it’s wonderful! Most aspiring writers do the same, I’m sure, and there’s no doubt that those taking the good advice that’s out there are ahead of the game. But there is one problem I’ve been seeing over and over again: trying so hard to follow advice on common mistakes you end up making new mistakes.

Of course it’s better to make new mistakes than old ones. We’re human, after all. We’re never free of mistakes. And as we say in Brazil, to err is human, to repeat an error is just plain stupid. So I guess it’s nice that we’re not making the same mistakes. But we all seem to be making some version of the mistake that comes with avoiding a common mistake.

How can avoiding a common mistake possibly be another mistake? Ok, maybe an example will be better. I know I do this all the time. And I see it a lot when critiquing too. So here are a few examples I’ve seen in my manuscript and in other people’s writing.

Advice: Avoid different dialogue tags.
Solution: Using “said” most of the time.
New problem: Ending up with a manuscript full of he said/ she said.

Advice (for previous new problem, actually): Don’t use dialogue tags all the time, only when absolutely needed.
Solution: Using an action after the quote to identify who’s talking.
New problem: Overusing that. You don’t have a manuscript full of he said/ she said, but you have a manuscript full of “quote.” He shifted in his seat. “Quote.” She turned away. So on and so forth.

Advice: Don’t dump all the background on your first few chapters.
Solution: Focusing on what’s going on at the moment and avoiding background info.
New problem: Ending up with a character who has no backstory.

See what I mean? We’re avoiding old problems and starting new ones. Which isn’t necessarily bad. It’s a process. As long as you’re able to identify those in your revisions or you have good critique partners to catch them for you (ideally both), you can keep making new mistakes. And then fix them. And make new ones. Whoever said writing is easy?

How about you? Do you make new mistakes when trying to avoid old ones? Do you take advice to heard way too much?

Looking for a critique partner? Find one here!

2011-05-11T06:34:00.000-07:00

I love playing matchmaker! So I'll try to make some matches around here. As I said before, my own critique group had limited spots (unfortunately), but I'm happy to help people find partners that would be a good fit.

Here's a short profile of one the girls who contacted me about the spot in our group. She's looking to start a group of writers in her genre. See if she's a fit!

Name: Tetonia Blossom
Genres: YA paranormal suspense and urban fantasies, as well as Women's Fiction Graphic Novels and Screenplays
URL: http://www.tromelblossom.com/
Twitter: @TRomelBlossom

Think she's a good fit for you? Get in touch with her!

Want to start your own group or find partners? Let me know, I'll post it here for you!

Good luck!

We have new members!

2011-05-09T07:50:00.001-07:00

We got some emails from wonderful girls wanting to join our group (it made us feel all popular!). After much debate, we've made our choice. Well, choices. We couldn't pick just one (making decisions is not our group's biggest strength). So I would like to welcome Meredith Jaeger and Stephanie Campbell to our critique group! Welcome, girls!

We got some other great emails, and it really was a hard choice. I think these girls would be great at any group, so, if you want to, just let me know and I'll post your contact info here. And feel free to use the comments to look for critique partners! I'd love to play critique matchmaker!

So welcome Meredith and Stephanie! Thanks to everyone who emailed us! And let me know if you need any help finding a critique group. I'll be glad to let the word out.

Spot at critique group

2011-05-05T12:35:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I have a wonderful critique group with writers Christie Koester, Julie A. Lindsey and Alaina Byers. A critique group can be extremely helpful in developing your career as a writer and in keeping you going.
And we have an opening!

Two of our former groupmates have recently left us because of time restraints, and we're now looking for a new member for our group. Here is a description of what we're looking for. Check to see if you're fit for the position and let us know!

- This is mostly a women's fiction group. Although most of our members write romantic comedy or humorous women's fiction, we also accept mainstream women's fiction, traditional romance and YA, as long as it's more women-driven and has some romance, humor and life struggles in it. We're not absurdly strict on genres, but if it's way too different from what we read and write we might not be a great help. We're probably not the best fit for sci-fi, fantasy, paranormal and stuff like that.

- Even though we write women's fiction, we have nothing against having a man in the group, as long as he writes within these genres.

- We submit in weekly turns, so each member would be submitting once every 5 weeks. We provide insightful and thorough feedback on every submission. Submissions usually have a 60-page max.

- We're a novel-writing group. Short stories and poetry might not be the best fit.

- W're all in different stages of our writing, so you shouldn't worry about that. We would love to have a published author on board, but anyone writing a novel is welcome. Your novel doesn't need to be finished, but you should have at least a few pages for your first submission.

- We're very flexible. We won't yell at you if life gets in the way and you can't submit once, or if you send 65 pages instead of 60.

- The most important thing is to love writing and to be helpful, honest and respectful. We're not looking for anyone to tell us our work is perfect when it isn't, but we definitely don't want anyone rude either. We have developed a wonderful friendship and we rely on each other a lot! We want someone who can fit nicely into that great thing we have going on.

Interested? Leave a post here or email me at gabrielalessacarvalho at gmail dot com. We would love to have someone on board!

Z - Zip it

2011-04-30T06:01:00.000-07:00

Wow. One month posting every day. That was very interesting and quite exhausting. But it showed me I can do it! I can blog more often, and I can follow a schedule! Woohoo!

It's been really fun. And I've met so many new people, which is such a great bonus! But I've talked a lot. About everything I could possibly imagine. So now I'm zipping it. I'll be quiet for a few days. Talk to you soon...

Y - Yo, you!

2011-04-29T12:58:00.000-07:00

No, no, not you. I mean the you who’s not you, you know? No? Yeah. That’s the problem.

I have a habit of using “you” in general sentences. Meaning “someone”. Like “In Brazil, when you do this, people do that.” And I’ve had many people read my MS and comment the same thing: Who are you talking to when you say those things? The reader?

That’s a good question. I have no idea. I use “you” because using “one” seems a bit over the top. And that’s one of my main weaknesses with the English language. I really don’t know what to use in those cases.

Do you know? (Yes, I mean you!)

X - Xenoglossy

2011-04-28T05:59:00.000-07:00

Yes. I admit it. I had to browse the dictionary for words starting with X. Apparently I don’t use them all that often. And I came across this one, xenoglossy, which my Word doesn’t even recognize as a word (gotcha, Microsoft!). Here’s the meaning:

— n
an ability claimed by some mediums, clairvoyants, etc, to speak a language with which they are unfamiliar

[C20: from Greek, from xeno- + Attic Greek glossa tongue, language]

Now, that seemed like it would suit the writing world! Not that any of us have superpowers or anything like that. And no, I won’t say I’m not familiar with English and I’m magically writing with the interference of God. I took English classes as a child. Learned a second language the old way. I hardly think God would go through such an effort for my writing… (I ramble. God must want someone more straightforward.)

Anyway. What I meant is that we do something like that everyday. We try to speak our readers’ language even though we don’t know who they are. We try to speak the market’s language, even if it sounds like Greek sometimes. We create a new world, new people, and write about things that never happened in real life. (Hey, I’m writing a post about a word I didn’t even know existed! How about that?)

We speak languages we’re unfamiliar with everyday, not through clairvoyance, but by pushing our boundaries. So we might not be mediums. But we’re writers! And that’s damn hard, but wonderful!

So here’s to xenoglossy. Any other fun words?

W - Worldwide Writers

2011-04-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

I love multicultural writing. I Love reading things from across the globe, learning about different cultures, enjoying a story that takes place in some far away land. I think it’s fascinating. But I still think I know too little about the rest of the world.

The internet helps, of course, but it seems we end up connecting to the same people on our own cliques. On twitter, I know mostly Western (mostly American, really) writers. And Brazilians, of course. But I don’t have one single follower from a place that’s really foreign to me. I’d like to.

So how can we change that? How can we bring writers from all over the world to our community? Suggestions?

V - View from my office...

2011-04-26T07:49:00.000-07:00

Sometimes an image really does say more than a thousand words...

U - Universal truths

2011-04-25T11:51:00.000-07:00

By now, we’ve all learned it’s dangerous to believe in universal truths. But, amazingly enough, we all insist on them. You’d think the 21st century would be full of rebels who don’t want to follow rules. But we love them. We want to know exactly what people are looking for. We want recipes for what will definitely work. We want the map to the treasure. Unfortunately, there is no such thing.

The internet might have made us lazy, really. It’s a wonderful tool, but we got used to having answers at our fingertips. Just google it and you know it all. It’s easy to get used to, isn’t it? So we do it. We go to agents’ blogs, and writers’ blogs, and Amazon so we can buy all those how-to books. We want to type and find the answers. What will get us published? Who will do that? What will be our advance? How can our professional and personal lives be entirely solved in a second? It’s so tempting to go looking for that. I know I do. There are a whole bunch of people claiming all you have to do to get the dream job is know how to use Twitter and Linkedin, aren’t there? So I use it. And when I don’t get exactly what I was hoping for, I get very frustrated. Didn’t they say it would solve my problems?

Those are just tools. Great ones, of course. But they won’t get the work done. What works for other people won’t necessarily work for me. There is no such thing as universal truth. But then again, that sounds a lot like another universal truth…

T - Tips

2011-04-23T05:21:00.000-07:00

I’ve noticed writers like to share. We have a huge community on twitter, and we tweet a lot. On my critique group, we email back and forth all the time. We blog, we comment on other people’s blogs and we give tips. Lots and lots of them.

Sometimes I feel like a bit of a fraud. Here I am, blogging about writing, and the craft of writing, and encouragement, and God knows what else crosses my mind. Here I am, giving all this advice and all these tips, and I haven’t even finished my own manuscript (or touched it in days, for that matter). So what do I know? Why should people be listening to me? And how are my tips any different from all the other tips out there in the cyber universe?

I have absolutely no idea. So, just for today, I’ll shut up and not give anyone any advice. I’ll just listen. Anything you want to share?

S - Shit, fuckity, fuck

2011-04-22T05:23:00.000-07:00

Okay, weird name for a post. But if you’ve watched The King’s Speech, you know what I’m talking about. Sort of.

In the movie, we see King George’s struggle to get words out. Which is not that different from what writers go through, really. Sometimes we just need a way, a technique that will help us get those words out. Scheduling is a good one (although I never follow through, I know writers who have scheduled times for their writing produce more). Using a thesaurus and a dictionary helps too – even if English isn’t your second language. And, the most important of all (and I know I repeat this a lot, but it really is important), reading. And watching movies, for that matter. Just seeing how other people get those scenes on the paper (or on the screen), how their setting works, how the plot matters, how the dialogues fit in… Seeing it work for others definitely helps us improve and, amazingly, get our words into the paper.

Now, if none of those help, I’m a big fan of Geoffrey Rush’s method as well. A little swearing, sometimes, does come in handy…

R – Relationship, objections and critique groups

2011-04-21T05:25:00.000-07:00

In one of those corporate classes I attend from time to time, the teacher explained about relationship types, conflict administration strategies, so on and so forth. There were a whole bunch of tests to tell you your type when it comes to relationships and whatever else it was he talked about. But one in particular caught my attention: the one about handling objections. The test went like this: he’d give us a bunch of objection situations with four reaction options. Something like this.

Situation: Your critique partner says, “This plot isn’t strong enough.”

Reaction:
A – Interesting. Could you explain more?
B – I see your point. But let me explain it to you.
C – You’re wrong.
D – Okay.

Yes, I realize the situation itself is kind of rude, but that’s how he explained it. The situations were always rude (which isn’t the case in my critique group, thank God!). But the point really is the reaction. He then explained what type of personality each answer showed.

D – Concurring. Or, basically, passive. You do anything do avoid conflict, even if you don’t think the other person’s right. You’ll never convince anyone unless they have no objections at all.

C – Conflicting. Meaning your reaction is kind of aggressive. You don’t listen and if you think you’re right, that’s it. You get way too defensive and it’ll probably cause people to get defensive too.

B – Diverging. Which can sound a bit condescending. Funny, right? I thought that was a polite answer. But he says that’s actually a way of saying “since you’re so stupid, let me show you how absurdly wrong you are”. It means you react to a conflicting point of view by showing yours until people give in.

A – Converging. Which is the good one. It means you’re interested in listening. You’re not just trying to get your point across, but you’re not being a push-over either. It increases your chances of success.

The interesting thing is that, even though A really is the best way to go and you should aim to be more like that, it’s not right to be always the same way. You have to be flexible. Sometimes you have to just let it go. Sometimes you have to be a bit aggressive. And sometimes the condescending won’t be as condescending as it will be explanatory. So aim for one, but have them all in you. Interesting, right?

Of course, the ideal situation is to have a group that won’t be that rude to begin with. But even with the good feedback (the kind I get from my group and the kind I hope you get too), you have to learn how to balance those. Accept some of the suggestions without questioning them. Say no to those that seem totally off. Explain to your partners what seems to have been misunderstood. But, most important of all, listen. And ask when you need more information. And always, always, take your group’s opinion into consideration before dismissing it. That’s what you have a critique group for.

Q – Quit? No way!

2011-04-20T05:28:00.000-07:00

I know. It’s tempting. From time to time, I stare at my sad little manuscript, with its sad little word count, and I blank. I freak out and tell myself I’ll never finish it. Just like I take a look in the mirror and tell myself I’ll never lose those remaining 20 pounds. And I sit at my job, day after day, and tell myself I’ll never find anything better.

Quitting is tempting. This past weekend, I almost gave in to that temptation and quit everything. But what would that solve? Not much, really. Actually, nothing at all. It might seem like the easy way out – I mean, there’s not much else to it than giving up, is there? But then it leaves you with… nothing. And that’s the hardest possible way out.

So, the point of today’s post is to be at least a tiny bit encouraging. And to get everyone to encourage each other too! So why don’t you share your ways to motivate yourself and others? And if you’re in need of a little nudging, leave a comment too. Maybe someone in this wonderful community we have here will be able to help you out. Who knows? You could leave this blog with a new friend, or feeling a little better about yourself. I know it might sound a bit pretensious, but this blog has done that for me. I would love it to do the same for someone else…

P.S. - That reminds me. April 28th (8 days from today) will be Pay It Forward Day. The event is happening worldwide and it's really easy to be a part of it. You should check it out!

P - Plan, plan, plan

2011-04-19T12:19:00.000-07:00

I’m a planner. So I had a big post prepared for today, about planning and how planning my wedding has been teaching me a lot, and how it’s not that unrelated to planning a novel. Which is true. There’s plotting, and outlining… A book should be just like a wedding reception, where it all seems to fall effortlessly into place and no one really thinks about al the time you’ve put on planning it.

There's a lot of comparisons I could make, and I had thought of all of them. But to me the lesson is a bit different today: no matter how much you try, you can’t plan everything. You can go nuts when things don’t go your way, or you can adapt. That’s true for writing, wedding planning and living. I’m starting to figure that out…

P.S. - Don't worry, both wedding and writing are still on. I'm not that off planning!

O - Only You

2011-04-18T05:15:00.000-07:00

I read a lot. And I assume everyone trying to be a writer does too. And I end up reading a lot of great stuff. I pay attention to everything: the voice, the descriptions, the pace, what makes the characters round. And, more often than not, I find myself wondering how on earth they pulled that off. And, more importantly, if I’m good enough to do the same.

I always read the author bio on the book jacket, and there’s usually some similarity to the characters. Usually the story takes place somewhere the author has lived, the MC graduated from the same college the author did, or they share the same religion, relationship status or love for whatever it is that they love. I have, for instance, seen an alarming number of romantic comedies where the messed up MC is a journalist. And yet I went to journalism school. Go figure. Anyway. The point is, no matter how small it is, there’s always something that comes from the author’s experience. And I sometimes find myself thinking “damn, if only I had been through this or lived in that place or been Jewish, I could write something like this”.

Yeah. You got it. You know where I’m going. Pep talk time. So here it goes: There’s always something that only you can write. There’s got to be something that makes you unique. You just have to convince yourself that it’s worth writing, even if your life sounds a lot less impressive – and when you figure out how to do that, come back here and teach me. But, well, it’s true. It might not be the most original advice (maybe my “O” post should’ve been originality), but it’s a valid one. You won’t get to be anyone else other than you. So just find whatever it is that only you can bring to the table. And put it out there.

N - Nonfiction Time!

2011-04-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

I blog a lot about fiction here. But I’m also a great fan of good nonfiction, and I realized I haven’t been giving it much attention around here. Time to fix that!

True stories have a way to move us that sometimes fiction doesn’t. Just thinking it’s true, it really happened, gives you a rush, the feeling of being allowed into something… If you haven’t read a whole bunch of nonfiction books, you should definitely give it a try. I particularly enjoy narrative journalism and memoirs, so here are a few of my favorite nonfiction books. Hope you enjoy them!

First They Killed My Father – Loung Ung

Infidel – Ayaan Hirsi Ali

And The Band Played On – Randy Shilts

Princess – Jean P. Sasson

Bitter Is The New Black – Jen Lancaster

Hiroshima – John Hersey

In Cold Blood – Truman Capote

What about you? Do you read nonfiction? What are your favorite books?

M - Man up!

2011-04-15T05:44:00.000-07:00

Whenever I swear (I’m trying to do it less often), make an inappropriate joke (ok, quite often) or give her a sarcastic answer (almost always), my mom says that’s not lady-like. I know. I’m 26 and she’s still saying things like that. The only thing that has changed from my teens is that now I have a fiancée to agree with her. But, the point is, apparently, I’m not very lady-like.

I refused to accept that idea until I read Jonathan Tropper’s This Is Where I Leave You. It’s wonderful. Hilarious, heartbreaking and blatantly honest. Seriously, all those ingredients I mentioned last week that are a part of me but seem to be missing in my writing? All there in his. The honesty that borders cruelty, the sarcasm spicing up the relationships, the attitude. It’s all there! Which brought me to the conclusion that my mother might be right. At least as a writer, I might be a bit of a tomboy.

Which is surprising, really. My room is decorated in bright pink and purple. I get my nails done every week and the nail polish is often bright pink or red. I love dresses. And I’m completely, irremediably, obsessed with weddings. Aside from the fact that I can’t wear heels, I believe I’m as girly as a girl can be.

But maybe this is it. Remember the discussion about genres and labels we had a few months ago? This might be the answer. Men write about relationships too. This Is Where I Leave You could’ve been by Jennifer Weiner. Except it couldn’t. And I don’t know why, because Weiner is certainly sarcastic. Her latest novel, Fly Away Home, actually is a lot like This Is Where I Leave You in many ways. But there’s something there... That voice, that dryness, that level of exposition of raw emotions…. I don’t know exactly what it is, but something in Tropper’s writing made it different. I can finally see the difference between what is considered women’s fiction from what Tropper writes (Literary? Mainstream? These genres are so confusing).

And the best news of all? Different is good. It doesn’t make one better or more important or more deserving of praise than the other. But there’s something different there, and that discovery has been quite liberating. I can love both genres. I can relate to both Weiner’s and Tropper’s writing. And, most importantly, I can take elements from both. Who said I can’t mix and match?

So, from now on, I might start writing like a man. One that enjoys romance, and girly talk and pink, of course…

L - Love in the Times of the Comedy

2011-04-14T06:21:00.000-07:00

The other day, for some mysterious reason, I woke up to find all the texts my now fiancée had sent me when we first started dating, years ago. Some technology blip I have no idea about, but it took me down memory lane. The first text I got from my fiancée the day after we hooked up read “Good morning future mother of my children numbers 2 and 3.” It was a long story I’m not getting into right now. But, clearly, it was a joke. It was a cute joke, one that showed: 1- He had paid attention to the conversations the day before and cared enough to mention something that was personalized, that somehow made part of our history that had just started. 2 – He wasn’t afraid to mention marriage and kids, even though back then it was still a joke. 3 – He was quirky, and had a sense of humor.

The point is, my knight in shiny armor didn’t exactly show up in a shiny armor. He was in shorts by the pool. And he didn’t have the amazing line or a pompous language, and he didn’t promise love for all eternity in a second. But he did things that helped create memories, things that only we can have. He was himself, and he was fun, and within a weekend we had a song and a story and reason to talk. That hasn’t changed in the past three and a half years we’ve been together. We’re romantic, of course. I’m all for flowers, and I know he goes out of his way to surprise me. And I really don’t need to mention just how much I talk about weddings, do I? But we’re also quirky, and we have fun. We don’t have intense moments with perfect lines that would fit the fairytales. More often than not, we’ll say something really stupid, and I’ll turn to him in a kiddy voice and ask, “sweetie, why are we such idiots?” to what he’ll make a funny face and shrug and I’ll tickle him and we’ll roll around on the couch.

Ok, I’m rambling about my relationship. But I do have a point. My point is that those are the heroes I want to read about. I don’t a Mr. Perfect, Mr. Fix-it, in a shiny armor and a righteous attitude. I want awkward first kisses, and couples roaring with laughter together, and guys being cute when they don’t even know they are, and being clumsy when they’re trying to be. I want funny. And funny comes with details that show intimacy. And that makes for a great couple. After all, don’t we all just love that scene that makes us laugh and do an “awww” sound at that same time? Like Luke in Marian Keyes’s novel “Rachel’s Holiday”. When he gets down to one knee and asks “Getting naked together is out of the question?” it made me laugh, and find it cute, and love the character. Real romance is in each character’s quirks, on each thing that makes that couple unique. And nothing more real than being silly with the one you love and just having a fun relationship. Those are the relationships we should be writing about.

K - Kick-starting your writing

2011-04-13T05:00:00.000-07:00

Procrastination is probably one of the words I see more often on writers’ blogs and tweets. Fear is another. We all dream of being published authors, having our books stacked on shelves all over the world, writing the next bestseller. But we know the odds. And they are terrifying.

So we let fear get the best of us, and we suddenly find ourselves stuck. We stare at the page and… nothing. We write and we think it’s total crap. We don’t write and we feel guilty about it. We find excuses not to write. And yet we dream….

What we really need is a kick start (or some ass kicking, possibly). How? By having someone to hold us accountable. It could be blog followers (you haven’t noticed the sleeping cartoon on my word count widget, have you?), critique partners, writers on twitter. It could be anyone who knows you’re writing, and who would like to see some results coming from you. Anyone who’d be willing to really kick our butts – AKA true friends.

If we want to be writers, we have to write. So find a way to kick-start your career. You won’t reach your dream if you don’t.

Now let me go back to writing. Or maybe lunch? (Okay, please do share your kick-starting techniques. Or just kick my butt online.)

J – Journalist writing

2011-04-12T05:00:00.000-07:00

As you all probably know (it’s written on my “about me”, after all), I’m a journalist. And I also write fiction. Which are hardly the same. But I was revising a fiction manuscript a few days ago and caught myself thinking, “This makes it sounds like old news.” Which, it turned out, resulted from the author telling instead of showing – something we read about all the time when it comes to the craft of fiction writing. The truth is there are lots of things a fiction writer can learn from a journalist – and vice-versa.

Lead: In journalism school, we learn that the lead (the opening paragraph of an article) should contain the news. It’s the “inverted pyramid” writing: news first, backstory later. Sounds familiar? Yeah. That’s what most agents seem to be looking for. Start the novel where the action’s happening, fill the reader in later.

News hook: The hook is the answer to the question, “Why write this story now?” It’s what makes your “get ready for summer” story original. Not unlike that something special in your plot.

Get the name of the dog: That’s special attention to details. The name of the dog. The smells. The sounds. Anything that will make the reader feel like he’s in the story. As long as it’s relevant.

What about you? Has the news ever taught you anything about writing fiction? Has fiction made you a better journalist?

I - INGing

2011-04-11T05:00:00.000-07:00

The difference between medicine and venom is the dosage. That’s (yet another) Brazilian saying that I think applies very well to the usage of “ing” verbs to connect two actions.

I see many drastic posts that tell us to avoid them at all costs. But that’s just because they’re being overused. It started innocently, as a way to turn several sentences into one, giving a better flow to prose. It’s also great for moments when there’s too much going on at once. Take this for example:

“Anne made an effort not to cry. She took a deep breath and read the first words of her speech.”

And now see this:

“Making an effort not to cry, Anne took a deep breath and read the first words of her speech.”

Second one is much better, isn’t it? It flows better, and it shows how she didn’t just make one effort not to cry and stopped. That effort went on, and the “ing” verb shows that. So those verbs can be good, right? No need to fear them. Good.

Now, the problem is people have been using them way too much, and in places where they don’t fit. Remember what I just said: they work for when things are happening at the same time. Like Anne making an effort not to cry while she took a deep breath and started reading. That’s possible. Yes. But look at this sentence, for example:

“Closing the door behind her, Mary enveloped her friend in a bear hug.”

Now, that’s impossible. While you’re closing a door, you’re closing a door. You can have feelings. You can be thinking something while doing that. But you can’t be hugging someone. Well, maybe you could, but it would look awfully awkward, and you’d probably end up taking your friend along with the door.

When someone writes a sentence like that, they usually mean this:

“Having closed the door behind her, Mary enveloped her friend in a bear hug.”

See the difference? She closed the door first, then hugged her friend. But even that kind of phrasing, while correct, can annoy the reader if overused. In cases like this, when it’s one action after the other, the best way to do it is usually the simplest one (as it is with most things):

“Mary closed the door behind her and enveloped her friend in a bear hug.”

Simpler, easier to read. But, for whatever reason, people seem to be afraid of using that. Over and over again, I see “ing” verbs where I should be seeing “she did this then she did that.” So, don’t. It won’t break your pace (if you don’t overuse, of course). Check your manuscript for too many sentences starting with “ing” verbs and make sure they narrate actions that can be performed at the same time. If not, cut the “ing”. Keep it simple. Seriously. Your characters could get into serious trouble when trying to open the door, put on a coat, whistle and chew gum all at the same time.

H – Hearing voices

2011-04-09T06:03:00.000-07:00

The other day I was in a class where the teacher was explaining something about personalities, reaction types and whatever it was that he was talking about (note to self: tweet less during classes). Every time this teacher put someone on spot and asked them a question, the person usually froze, or started answering something completely different (he might not have been the best at posing questions, now that I think of it). And, naturally, every time someone was in that position, everyone in the class tried to help. The teacher would ignore everyone, look straight at the person he had put on spot to begin with, and ask them, “Are you hearing voices?”

And you’re thinking “what a messy class and what a bunch of rude people who wouldn’t let the poor person think”, right? Well, sorry to tell you, but you probably do it too. It’s called trying to help someone out, and we do it all the time. We just don’t usually have a teacher asking the person we’re trying to help if they’re hearing voices.

I hear them all the time. Now that I’m planning my wedding, I have those voices come from everyone who has ever gotten married, or been to a nice wedding, or had a third cousin who had “the most fabulous wedding ever”. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard the sentences “You must go with my photographer,” or “this florist is simply the best,” or “you don’t even need to hear another string quartet, just go with this one.” If I visited every single vendor everyone suggested, I’d do nothing else in my life other than visit vendors, and I wouldn’t have made one single choice yet (either that or I’d be having 15 different weddings).

Which makes me think of how much input we get on our work, and how much we should listen to. Of course tips are great. I need them to know where to start. I love talking about wedding planning and exchanging information with other brides. Just like I love getting feedback from my critique group, and I’ve become quite addicted to contests that offer critiques. But just like I can’t hear to every bride, I can’t hear to every suggestion about my manuscript. No one can. If we do, we’ll never finish anything.

So here are a few tips on how to deal with those voices telling you what to do with your manuscript:

1. Don’t rely on just one person. Have a critique group, or more than one beta. That way you can compare people’s opinions.

2. More than one person mentioned the same thing? There’s probably some truth in it.

3. The comment the person made gives you the impression she didn’t get the point at all? It could be that she wasn’t paying attention. But it could also be that your point isn’t coming across. Revise.

4. Know your critique partners’ backgrounds and learn how to differ taste from technical opinion. Someone said she doesn’t like something that you love? Check to see if she’s your target reader.

And, most importantly:

5. Learn how to critique your critiques. In the end, this is your manuscript after all.

6. Know that you’ll never please everyone. Make sure your manuscript is as good as you think it could be, and then brace yourself for the bad reviews. Published or not, they will come.

But, well, that's just my voice telling you what to do...

P.S. - Yes, you should know how to filter all the advice you get. That doesn't mean ignoring advice. Know the difference between filtering advice and being proud and stubborn. Take constructive criticism and make your work better.

P.S. 2 - Do get critiques! I can't tell you how much my writing has improved since I started my wonderful critique group.

G – Good kind of flawed

2011-04-08T05:30:00.000-07:00

I love flawed characters. I think they’re the best. Perfect people are boring in real life (actually, I’m not sure they exist in real life) and they’re boring on paper too. We need heroes and heroines, of course. But they can’t be too perfect.

Think of your favorite characters. Mine are full of flaws and quirks, the ones I want to slap and say “why on earth are you doing that?” – and, particularly, the ones that still have me rooting for them after all that. It’s Heathcliff and Cathy in Wuthering Heights, Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, Rachel and Darcy in Something Borrowed and Something Blue. Those are the ones I relate to. Because, let’s be honest, we’re not perfect. Neither are our friends. God only knows how many times I’ve felt like slapping my best friends until they came to their senses (never done it though). We’re people, after all. And interesting people do everything wrong.

Now, there’s the good kind of flawed, and there’s just plain bitchy. What sets them apart? I’m still trying to figure that out as I write. But I think mostly we have to focus on motive, tone and redeeming qualities. If someone like Heathcliff does everything wrong for love, how can you really hate him? If Darcy, as bitchy as she was, finally finds her motherly instincts, how can it not feel like all’s forgiven?

A character’s flaws should be consistent, should have an explanation and, above all, should be redeemable. The character should be complex and full of contrasts - not pure good, not pure evil. If someone’s a bitch, has no reason at all for being so and absolutely no opportunity to improve, then… well, then she’s just a bitch. But if someone does everything wrong while trying to do things right, and you get to struggle with her while she tries to find herself? Than you have a winning character.

What about you? Who are your favorite characters and how messed up are they?

F – First person... to go nuts!

2011-04-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

I’m writing my manuscript in first person. I think many aspiring authors do this. I don’t know if it’s because that first novel always feels a bit autobiographical, or if it’s because we tend to narrate the way we think, and we think in first person (unless you’re one of those weirdos who talk about themselves in third person). But I know it’s a trend. I’ve seen this in the first novels of many now known authors, like Marian Keyes and Jennifer Weiner. It happens a lot. And it’s damn hard to do.

The more I read, the more I see how first person has become less and less common. I don’t blame the writers out there. Writing in first person is hard. It limits your descriptions, the showing of reactions. Third person, I’ve come to realize, seems to set the author free to be inside the character’s mind, but still be able to show that character as viewed from the outside. First person is a little more limiting.

Now that I’ve been reading a lot and working on the same manuscript for a long time (I’ll talk about this on another opportunity), I find myself thinking in third person. Not about myself, obviously. About my MC. I find myself thinking of my manuscript and the lines I want to write pop up in my head in third person (they also come with a Southern accent, but I have no explanation for that one). The point is, it feels like a natural evolution.

Now, I’m not saying there aren’t novels that work better in first person – there are plenty of those, and I’ve read many that are masterfully done. And I’m definitely not saying I’ll change my manuscript now (I still believe it works in first person). All I’m saying is, when you start a novel, make sure you’re choosing first person for a valid reason. Do some research, maybe even try out the first few pages in both ways to see which one works best. Or the whole first or third person thing could drive you mad somewhere down the road.

E – Endings can bring new beginnings

2011-04-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

It’s probably happened to you. You’re reading a book and it’s great, you can’t put it down. You’re sure something will happen in the end that will knock your socks off. So you read. And you read. And you read. And when you reach that last page, all you can say is “You have got to be kidding me.”

We talk about the opening pages of a novel. “You have to hook the reader in those first few pages, you have to hook an agent in those first few pages, that’s all you have, your only chance.” True. The first few pages will determine whether an agent asks for a full or not. They’ll determine whether someone who opened your book while browsing through a bookstore will take it home or not. They’ll determine if your reader will keep on reading or not.

They’ll buy your book based on that first page alright. But if you screw up the last one, people won’t buy your second book. Because first impressions are hard to change. But that last one? That one really stays.

Really, think about it. How many books have you read that didn’t really pick up the pace until you were half way through them? And how many times have you struggled with the first few chapters and still, in the end, you claimed it was a wonderful book? It’s happened to me hundreds of times. And with amazing books too. A Hundred Years of Solitude, for instance. Tell me those first few chapters are exciting and I’ll say you’re a big liar. As much as I love García Márquez, I couldn’t say that book hooked me at once. But somewhere down the road I started falling in love with it, and by the time I finished it, all I could say was “wow.” And so I read many of his other books, and to this day he remains one of my favorite authors.

Now, when I’m disappointed with the ending? I don’t buy another book from the same author. And I’m not talking about a happy ending here. Some of my favorite books have really depressing endings, on some I just wish I could reach out and go back in time and change those characters’ lives. But I’m always hoping for something. It doesn’t matter the genre. It could be a happily ever after. It could be the character making peace with her life. I could be something that suggests there will be happiness down the road. It could be a villain winning. It could be the MC’s death. It could be the solution to a big mystery. It doesn’t matter what it is, it has to be satisfying. If the book is thrilling and at the end I learn that there are no surprises, that I already knew everything I could’ve known half way through the book? Not good. If it’s a romance and there’s no love at the end. Nuh. If that ending isn’t satisfying within its genre and the expectations that novel creates, I won’t give it five stars on Goodreads, I won’t recommend that book and I won’t buy anything else from that author, no matter how good those first two thirds were.

So pay attention to your first pages, of course. But make sure you put your best effort into that ending too. Or there might not be new beginnings for you…

D - Dry humor o’mine, where art thou?

2011-04-05T06:30:00.000-07:00

We have a saying in Brazil. Actually, we have lots of sayings in Brazil (and I love to use them), but this particular one goes like this: you lose a friend but you don’t miss a joke. Yeah, I know. That’s just the way we are.

But I am a bit more. I’m a bit over the top, a Brazilian on steroids. I have absolutely no notion of personal space or social boundaries. I become really close to people within minutes of meeting them. I feel comfortable to make jokes at all times. I make fun of everyone and everything. And, above all, I’m sarcastic. I never miss a punch line. My humor is dry, and witty, and cruel, and I always have an answer on the tip of my tongue.

Needless to say, people either love me or hate me. In Brazil, that’s a pretty balanced ratio, so I can be myself knowing that I have many close friends who adore me just the way I am. But my sarcasm and my lack of knowledge of social rules didn’t do wonders for me in America. I was caught off guard, really. I mean, didn’t Americans come up with characters like Chandler Bing and Dr. House? I thought I could be like them and it would be okay, but apparently that’s only okay on TV.

So I tuned it down. I learned to think before I opened my mouth. After offending quite a few people, I learned to ask all the time if I was being offensive. I reduced the swearing, controlled the sarcasm, tried not to make fun of people, their ways, their culture. And I became a much milder version of myself. (Which my psichiatrist refers to as being blasé)

Now – and some of you might have read this on this blog before – there are two versions of me, one in English and one in Portuguese. The real me is back in Brazil, as sarcastic as always, full of punch lines and witty comments. The English me is on this blog and on my manuscript. And guess what? I often find that version lacking a voice. I read this blog and I don’t think it’s funny. I read my manuscript and I don’t think my MC as half as quirky and over the top as I am. Why? Because I’ve been afraid. I’ve been telling myself the whole time “watch out, you’re writing this for an American audience, please don’t offend anyone”. I’m afraid I’ll hurt people’s feelings, I’m afraid agents will find my voice offensive, I’m afraid my real self will be unpublishable. So I hold back. And while doing so, I make my writing bland. And it makes me think of a Brazilian song (I quote those a lot too) that goes “how many of the flaws fixed with time were the best thing in you?”

So, my suggestion is, don’t hold back. Show your flaws. Flawed characters are the best, anyway. I’ll still have to learn how to do that. Maybe I’ll keep holding back, at least a little. But, as another Brazilian saying advises, “do as I tell you, not as I do it.”

P.S. - I read this over. Hundreds of times. I asked myself if anyone would be offended by it. Are you? Am I ok? Do you hate me yet?
P.S. 2 - Yes, I am in therapy.

C - Cry, laugh or sigh

2011-04-04T09:19:00.000-07:00

A few months back, someone from the publishing field (An agent? An editor? I’m not sure) tweeted about using the expression “throwing your head back with laughter”. They mentioned it was a cliché, that no one actually did that in real life, and asked who has committed such sin in their writing. I had to raise my hand. I have.

I have the hardest time with expressing emotions on my writing. “Show, don’t tell.” Yeah, I know. But how do I show it without seeming cliché? There are only so many words you can use. Tears streamed down her face. She could feel the tears burning in her eyes. She blinked back tears. She sobbed. She… What? In how many ways can you show someone crying? Or laughing? Ad how many reactions are there aside from sighing, winking or shaking your head?

Well, I just try to think of what I do in everyday life. Try to keep it real. And, most importantly, I read a lot. I could give you lots of advice, but this is probably the best one - and the one that's most likely to work. I see how great writers do it. You know those novels that seem so flawless you just go on reading, and it flows, and you don’t even stop to pay attention at how they’re writing emotions and reactions? Well, do. The scene seems flawless? Go back and analyze it over and over again until you know what exactly makes it feel so natural. That’s what I’ve been doing at least.

I haven’t completely mastered that art yet. But I’m paying close attention to it. Oh, and for the record, I do throw my head back in laughter. What can I say? It’s the kind of thing I usually take overboard.

B - Bloghops, blogfests, blog contests...

2011-04-02T07:00:00.000-07:00

I can’t really tell you how much I’ve signed up for something using a linky tool lately. Bloggers seem to love those. Everyday, if you really look for it, you can find a blogfest, blog hop or blog contest going on. I for one have had a few here. And I’ve certainly entered a few. But how much is too much?

Blog Hops are fun, and they are certainly a nice way to find new blogs and get new followers. But I don’t really see a point in joining one every week. My suggestion is to join a few in the beginning, then gradually become more selective. If it’s a theme-less “introduce yourself and check out other people’s blogs” kind of hop, make sure you have a reason to enter. Are there many bloggers there? Is the host awesome? Are there great potential new followers? If there’s a theme, make sure you fit in. No point in entering a YA hop when you write adult nonfiction. The important thing to remember is that you’re not just looking for new followers. The point is to interact. So do it where you think interaction will be worth. If you wouldn’t talk to these people in a party, don’t join their blog hop.

Blogfests can be wonderful too. I particularly like those better than hops because they usually have themes. And they can be great! I’ve had lots of fun writing entries about God knows how many different topics, and I always find new followers and new great blogs to follow. But, again, be careful not to overdo it. If all you ever have in your blog are blogfest entries, not a lot of people will want to really follow it (as in not only click on your follower gadget, but actually keep up to date on hat you’re posting). So the trick is to only do it when it really sounds fun. Not just to gather empty followers.

And then there are blog contests. Oh, I know, those are a huge temptation. Many wonderful prizes just one post away. I love them! The only thing about them is that, more often than not, they’ll ask you to post the first page, or first sentence, or first so many words of your manuscript. Which is great, of course. You’ll usually het great feedback and a chance to improve your writing. But, really, how many times can someone read the same post of the same first page without giving up on your blog?

So I guess the tip is the same for all of them. Choose well. Don’t enter every single hop, fest or contest, or your blog will become a random selection of entries that no one really, deeply wants to read. But the ones that are worth it? Well, then they’re worth it. Just remember to have fun!

A - About what now?

2011-04-01T09:30:00.000-07:00

I entered the A to Z challenge. Don’t ask me why. I still can’t figure out if it happened in a flash of genius or in a moment of temporary insanity. What I do know is that I entered, and now I’m supposed to blog everyday (except Sundays) for a whole month.

First, a little moment to explain what the A to Z Challenge is. During the month of April, everyone who entered the challenge will blog every day from Monday to Saturday, one post for each letter of the alphabet. So today everyone comes up with a post with the letter A, tomorrow with letter B, so on and so forth. To enter, go to one of the hosts’ blogs, enter on the linky tool and start posting (and reading other people’s posts, of course). This year’s hosts are Arlee Bird, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Candace Ganger, Jeffrey Beesler, Jen Daiker, Karen Gowen, Stephen Tremp and Talli Roland.

So, back to my decision. I freaked out a bit. Writing a post a day? Sounds like quite a challenge. Do I even have that much to talk about? (Well, I probably do, but do people really want to read about it?) As I tried to tell myself it would be okay, the only questions that kept coming back to me was “About what? About what?” Which, luckily for me, is a question that starts with A. The answer is a little trickier…

After all, what should we be blogging about? Writing tips seem to be proliferating and I’m starting to see the same ones over and over again. The same goes for blogging tips, social media tips, query tips… Apparently, giving tips is a big deal. Why? Because it’s easier. We know the advice by heart. Do we follow it? Sometimes. But isn’t it just easier to give advice you can’t always follow instead of sharing what’s going on with you? It might be. But that won’t take you too far. The most successful blogs seem to be those with a strong voice, those that make you feel you’re getting to know the person behind that screen. So it doesn’t really matter what you’re blogging about (well, it does a little, but I’m assuming you know that). It’s how you blog and how you show yourself through your posts. The goal is to connect. And how do you do that? Oh, that’s a question that starts with another letter…

Sick.....

2011-03-28T11:16:00.000-07:00

I know. I haven't posted in a week. So here's what's happened in the past seven days: I worked a lot. I wrote very little. It was my mom's 50th birthday and we had a big party. And I woke up today really, really sick.

So I planned on writing a clever post. But I really don't think anything clever's coming out of my head today. Instead of writing, I'll rest, and plan some clever posts for when the A to Z challenge begins, on April 1st. See you guys Friday. Night, night now.....

Show Me The Voice Contest

2011-03-21T07:02:00.000-07:00

Today, Brenda Drake is holding a fun contest. We're supposed to post our first 250 words, get feedback, polish them and e-mail them to her for a chance to win amazing prizes from agent Natalie Fischer. The goal? To show some voice in those 250 words. So here are mine. Do you think there's a strong voice in there?

Name: Gabriela Lessa
Title: Wherever You Call Home
Genre: Multicultural women's fiction

I never thought I would long for coach class seats, but then again I never thought I’d have the guts to board a plane like this one. I bite my chapped lip and bring my shoulders up to my ears when the engine roars again, sounding alarmingly like an old truck. I think the deafening noise might be a strategy to distract us from how low the thing flies and how small it is.

I look around and take a deep breath. Relax, Cleo. Coming here was your choice, remember? I exhale sharply and try to shift in my seat, bumping my knees into my mom’s chair in front of me for the hundredth time in the past few minutes, but she’s so focused on staring out the window she doesn’t seem to notice it. On the opposite side of me, my dad sits with his head slightly bowed in order not to hit the ceiling. If the transportation’s like this, I wonder what the destination is like. Did I just make an awful decision? Maybe I should consider having someone else make my choices for me.

I shake my head to push away those thoughts – no point in worrying about that now – and go back to struggling with my seat until I manage to turn to my right in an attempt to spread my legs towards the aisle. I wish I could say it made a difference. How long is this trip anyway?

“Cleo, honey, I can only see cows,” my mom yells through the roaring engine.

***

Any thoughts on this? Hope you like it! And make sure you stop by Brenda's blog and check out the other entries.

A word from our winner Connie Sokol - THE 3/12 BIG BIRTHDAY BASH

2011-03-18T16:01:00.000-07:00

When I told Connie Sokol she was our big winner, I asked her to comment on her win. Her answer was so inspiring I decided to post it here separately. Connie Sokol is the mother of six children, a national and local presenter, and former radio and TV host and columnist for Deseret News. She is the self-published author of the nonfiction Life is Too Short for One Hair Color, Life is Too Short for Sensible Shoes, and Are You Ready for a LIFEChange? Mrs. Sokol marinates in time spent with her family and eating decadent treats.

Connie's novel, True Life, is the story of Katie Connelly, small-town girl turned PR associate in New York City, who dreams of doing something big with her life. She gets her chance with an internship opportunity at a sister-firm in London to be the shadow assistant of rising British star Ian Harrington. Meanwhile, her childhood friend, Jared Beckham, confronts his deeper feelings for her now that he could lose Katie, but is unable to confess them. As second pick for intern, Katie must prove to her old New York boss, and the new vindictive London supervisor, that she is capable of this pivotal assignment connecting intercontinental PR agencies. Always professional, Katie is shocked to discover romantic feelings for Ian, who also has unexpected feelings for her. Even though Jared flies to London to secure Katie’s affections, Ian and Katie’s feelings increase until rumors surface about Ian and his possible prior marriage and son. The situation and the paparazzi escalate and Katie is wrongfully fired, returning home a failure. Confused, without word from Ian or Jared, she must create a new life, while resolving truths and lies about Ian and evolving realizations about her unacknowledged feelings for Jared. As truths unfolds, Katie realizes she must choose between the two men while discovering who she is and ultimately what she will make of her life.

And here's what Connie has to say about her manuscript, her writing and the contest!

"I’ve never written fiction. It’s ironic—I’ve spoken and self-published books, even written a column for a newspaper. But this was completely foreign and not on my radar screen.

About two years ago I stopped doing all those things and I just went still, like the one bit of farmer’s land they lay fallow every seven years. Seven months later, in October, an entire plot line just dropped into my head (fall planting?) and I raced to my bathroom—with six children, my only sanctuary. I wrote it all down on long post-it notes, pen on fire, before my children woke up. For some bizarre reason , I then put it away, because I had had the same experience with another plot line about three months earlier for an historical fiction romance (the result, I think, of watching Elizabeth Gaskell’s “North and South”—all four hours—three times in succession). For the remaining year I divided my writing time—consisting of a few hours during my children’s weekly art, ballet, and preschool time—between the two plots, though mainly focused on the historical.

Then I visited my mother in Oregon, a girl’s weekend of just the two of us. At breakfast in a busy café I said, “I’m writing this book, and I want to run it by you.” A half hour later, my breakfast was untouched, my mother’s completely gone, and her face absolutely alive. Such an empowering moment “That’s the one, that’s the one you should write.” I felt inspired and motivated. But for some reason, I came back and continued to write the historical fiction. Until I hit a stopping point. It wasn’t really a block, just a stop—I loved it but couldn’t write more, though I wanted to, and the ideas were there. Again, a random phone conversation with my mother, telling her my predicament. “That other one, that’s the one you should write.” And this time it clicked.

So I wrote it. This was September. I spent the next three and a half months (fall again!) completely focused on writing “True Story” during those lesson times. I finished it on the goal date—my birthday—45 and loving it. Though it was a rough first draft, it was 400 pages of a beginning, middle, and end, with lots of drama and plot twists in between.

A friend posted this contest and I thought, well, I’ve nowhere to go but up. I’m absolutely thrilled that you liked the manuscript. It motivates and inspires me to revise and polish and keep soaking in writing “instructables” and reading great prose. Truly, thank you for the opportunity."

You're welcome, Connie! Thank you for those inspiring words!

WE HAVE WINNERS! - THE 3/12 BIG BIRTHDAY BASH

2011-03-16T09:27:00.000-07:00

I know, I know. I said the winners would be announced on March 30th. But I got an email from Lora Rivera last night saying she just couldn't wait to read the entries, so she read them all and chose the winners in two days. Somehow I didn't think you'd mind an early announcement, would you?

So here are our big winners!

3rd PLACE - Query critique:
Deana Barnhart (entry 15)

2nd PLACE - Critique of query + 10 pages:
Jeni Bell (entry 11)

Now, the first place winner is a curious story. She almost didn't manage to enter the contest. She entered her link on the linky tool, but it turned out her blog was inactive and she couldn't figure out how to activate it back. So she emailed me her entry. I debated a little about whether or not to accept it, but I figured she had entered on the deadline, and I couldn't punish her for not being technology savvy... So I accepted her entry, and it turns out hers was Lora's favorite! Still, it felt a bit unfair that you didn't get to read her entry, so here it is. Without further ado, our big winner, Connie Sokol!

1st PLACE - Critique of query + 20 pages
Connie Sokol (entry 19)

Title: True Story
Genre: Romance Women’s Fiction
Status: Rough draft completed

If only today would hurry up and finish.

Katie fidgeted with Jane Austen Countrysides: Volume II. Dim lights and color reflected on the subway windows, smearing Van Gogh shapes in the dark tunnel. Shifting in her seat, she glanced around the sea of gray raincoats. Yesterday, the gray might have seeped into her bones too. But not today.

Within hours she could know. Within days she could be there. She, Katie Connelly, peon associate. And meeting him. A shy smile stole across her face. Grunt PR girl meets British icon Ian Harrington. She sat up stiff and professional. No. Mr. Harrington, she corrected herself, and just working with him. That was all, but it was enough.

“Today,” Katie said aloud, a mixture of fear and euphoria filling her, “everything changes.” Passengers close by stared, but not for long.

This was New York.

Exiting at her usual downtown stop, Katie jostled her way topside with the rest of the crowd. A few steps into clouded sunlight, Katie braced for the familiar temptation—the heady aroma of Dean & Deluca’s croissants, bigger than your hand and lightly dusted with baker’s sugar. Stopping for a moment, she inhaled deeply. Just this once? She bit her lip. Every dollar mattered, especially now. With a last look, she turned and moved on.

Sounds of taxi horns and jackhammers competed in the air as she walked quickly to the Seagram building. Katie strode across the granite plaza, greeted the doorman, and entered the first floor glass doors.

“Dunbar and Delaney Mediaprise, can you hold?” Della lifted her headset and glanced at Katie. “I’ve got three dozen frosted rolls riding on you today, sugar.”

“But what if I don’t get it?” asked Katie. Her stomach churned.

“Well, you’d better.” Della adjusted her clip-on lime green earring. “Didn’t your mama ever tell you Lady Luck needs a little push?”

“Didn’t your...

---

Great, right? Now, why this entry? Here's what Lora thought:

"I picked Connie's ultimately because Katie, our protagonist, is round, round, round. She's relatable - anxious about starting a new job. She's adorable - idealistic to the point of being almost as hopeless as a heroine out of the Jane Austen book she's reading when we first meet her. And she's transparent; her everyday walk past the NYC Dean & Deluca tells us loads about her state of mind, coupled by a few nice gestures - a lip bite and a glance behind her. I'm on her side from the get-go, and in a Romantic Women's Fiction novel, this is exactly where a reader wants to find herself."

Later this week I'll post more about Connie and this winning manuscript of hers!

So congratulations, Connie, Jeni and Deana! To claim your prizes, just email me your query and pages and I'll forward them to Lora.

And thanks to everyone who participated. Your wonderful writing made my birthday a lot happier! And thanks to Lora for offering these amazing prizes!

Delusional Blogfest of Doom

2011-03-15T07:39:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I'm celebrating my birthday this month. Nice to think of the day you were born, isn't it? Well, apparently writer Hart Johnson prefers to think of the day you died. Or will die. Or someone died. And I thought it would be at least ironic (and at the very best funny, you know, if I do this right) to predict my own death during my birthday celebrations. Yeah, I'm just that weird.

So, here it is, in honor of Ides of March, my obituary for the Delusional Blogfest of Doom. Make sure to stop by at Hart's blog and check out the other posts. It's pretty fun (in a dark way, but still).

Gabriela Lessa (03/12/1985 - 03/15/2086)

Brazilian author and journalist Gabriela Lessa died in her sleep, last night, at her home in Belo Horizonte, at age 101. Friends and family will gather for a service this morning, at the local cemetery. Following Brazilian tradition, the body will be in the cemetery at all times, since the author has always considered the idea of bringing a dead body into a living room and having people eat and drink around it way too creepy.

Only journalist in history to have lived to be 101 with no heart attacks or alcohol-induced diseases, Gabriela was known to be a fan of bar-hopping, heavy drinking and greasy food. Friends attribute her health and long life to the popular Brazilian saying "a bad vase doesn't break easily," often professed by the writer herself.
Due to a top-secret formula, Gabriela remained thin as a model until the day she died, even though she ate a tub of ice cream a day. Asked if she and her brother would reveal their mother's formula, the writer's daughter laughed and said, "Why on earth would you want to know my mother's secrets? Are you fucking insane?"

Author of 15 bestselling novels and four screenplays, Gabriela became famous for her sarcasm and criticism (which earned her the distrust of many authorities), and for her portrayal of Brazilian culture. Because of her novels, the number of foreign tourists that go partying during Brazilian carnival more than tripled in the last few years, causing a turmoil that the Brazilian government has called the "Lessa effect".

Gabriela hasn't published anything in twenty years, since she won the Nobel Prize in 2066, but her grandchildren say she wrote until the very end. They promised to look for possible finished manuscripts and publish her late work.

Her last public appearance was last year, when she threw a party for 900 guests to celebrate her 100th birthday. The party lasted until 6 A.M., but there are no accounts of what happened there, since very few remember. Most guests seem to have no recollection of the events after the fourth round of cachaça, although some say the birthday girl yelled "Can't you idiots hold your damn liquor?" at some point.

The author is to be buried next to her husband, who passed away only three months ago.

And the contest is on! - THE 3/12 BIG BIRTHDAY BASH

2011-03-11T12:24:00.000-08:00

And the contest is on!

My birthday is almost here, and so is the contest! From now until tomorrow, March 12th, 11:59 PM (EST), post your entry on your blog.

Your entry MUST include title, genre, status (finished MS or WIP) and your first 312 words. Remember, you must post just the first 312 words, even if it stops midsentence!

Here’s how my entry would look like:

Title: Wherever You Call Home
Genre: Multicultural Women’s Fiction
Status: WIP

My first 312 words here…

Easy, right? So go ahead and post your entry on your blog! Before you post, make sure your link is on the linky tool on the sign-up post. If it’s not there, I won’t see it.

I’ll stop by every blog and comment on every entry sometime between tomorrow and Sunday, when I’ll email the 12 finalists to guest judge Lora Rivera. Finalists will be notified until Sunday evening. Winners will be announced on March 30th.

If you haven’t signed up yet, there’s still time! Just go to the sign-up post and enter your link on the linky tool. It will be open for entries until noon, March 12th.

Good luck! Looking forward to reading your entries!

THE 3/12 BIG BIRTHDAY BASH! - Interview with guest judge Lora Rivera

2011-03-10T10:32:00.000-08:00

After a much deserve dand much fun carnival break, I'm back to the blogging world just in time to let you know a little more about our guest judge, literary agent Lora Rivera, of the Claire Gerus Literary Agency.

As I've told you before, Lora is a fairly new agent and, therefore, a great opportunity for aspiring authors, since she's building her client list. You can learn more about Lora on her website, www.lorarivera.com.

But to give you some insight on this great guest judge, here's an interview where she talks about her interests, queries and her submission guidelines.

Gabriela - What kind of fiction are you looking for?

Lora Rivera - Overall, fiction is about story, so I’m looking for a narrative arc that carries me through to the end, narrative drive that keeps me turning pages, and narrative urgency that makes me feel that what’s about happen next is going to matter. Also generally, I’m on the lookout for round characters (not just the protagonist!), and smart prose. This is prose that syncs with its genre and characters to accentuate the story. It’s a pretty high calling for books, but when I see it, I know I have to have it.

Genres: literary fiction (language is key here); women’s fiction with exciting, relatable heroines; fresh YA and middle grade; short story collections with a publication history; very solid thrillers and historicals. I don’t do graphic novels or picture books, but if I’ve left out your genre, and you think I might be a fit, no harm in finding out!

G - What makes a query successful? And what in a query has you running for your life?

LR - Ah, successful queries tell me about the book by focusing on the protagonist. I don’t mind loglines, as long as they tell me about the book – not the world, not the hero’s history, not the technology in use, even if it is really, especially, amazingly cool. I don’t particularly want to know much about the author aside from a brief bio paragraph, and maybe a (relevant!) final note that will show the author’s creds for writing the book in question.

Other than that… Extremely pitchy queries put me on edge. I like voice in a query, and I like the query to match the genre, to give me a hint of the book’s prose style. I appreciate short queries. I run from begging queries and arrogant queries.

Last, there’s tons of material out there on how to write a good query letter, and I promise that writing a good one will not hurt. But if the story isn’t what a particular agent is looking for at that moment, even a great query will get bypassed. Ultimately, this is a subjective business, and success can depend on everything from the weather to the quality of coffee or tea an agent/editor has snuggled into her palm.

I’m on the lookout for round characters (not just the protagonist!), and smart prose. This is prose that syncs with its genre and characters to accentuate the story. It’s a pretty high calling for books, but when I see it, I know I have to have it.

G - For this contest, you'll be reading just 312 words from each manuscript. That's about a page and a half to two pages. Is that usually enough for you to know if you want to read more?

LR - Yes. Usually.

G - What are you looking for in those first few pages? What hooks you?

LR - Voice, character, prose, setting. I know that’s not terribly helpful, but it’s true. Most important is not giving me a reason to stop reading. I tend to stop when I see strained dialogue, adjective abuse, too much back story too early, and not starting where the story starts (I love agent Jill Corcoran’s article on activating your story).

Successful queries tell me about the book by focusing on the protagonist.

G - How do you usually work with your authors?

LR - Upon signing, we usually have a few long chat about a goals, hopes, dreams, expectations, future or works in progress, and then start the process of submitting to editors, which can be as excruciating as the first round – there’s no sugarcoating, either, though a positive outlook is a must. Different authors have different needs, but I do like to be in touch (with signed authors) from the early stages, developing and idea, to the end product, including contracts, suggestions for marketing and exposure, etc. For weekly contact, I prefer email to phone calls.

G - How can people query you and what should they include?

LR - Fiction queries should go to lora.rivera@gmail.com and include a synopsis (1-2 pages) pasted below the query, plus the first five manuscript pages, also pasted. I would ask that authors do not reply to rejections, as this makes it less likely I’ll supply even minimal feedback in the future. Additionally, when submitting partials, please embed the material unless I’ve requested otherwise, as extraneous attachments are a nuisance at best. And please respond to the original email chain when submitting partials and fulls.

Are you dying to get your work in front of her? Then sign up for the contest! You could win critiques from Lora!

I leave you with a quote from Lora's website that I absolutely loved. I'll be back on Saturday to launch the contest. Hope to read your 312 words soon!

I love to feel when I read. Get me to rip my heart out and send it with a character--even after the book is shut--and I'm hooked, for better or worse.

And I love a beautiful line so that my breath catches as I read and I can't help but wish I were the writer, knowing, all the same, that I probably would have butchered that lovely passage had I my wish.

Last, I love watching talented writers grow, excel, and obsess. This last for company, but the rest because it's a thrill to see passion find an outlet that makes the world sit up and take notice.

(quote from Lora Rivera's website)

THE 3/12 BIG BIRTHDAY BASH!!! (With critiques from an agent!)

2011-03-03T14:26:00.000-08:00

It's March! My birthday month! I never really understood those people who hate birthdays. I love birthdays! I've never gone one year without celebrating mine at least once - most years I have two parties. Since this is my first birthday as a blogger, I couldn't not celebrate with my dear followers, right?

As much as I'd like it, I can't invite you all over for my birthday party (well, I could, I just highly doubt you'd fly to Brazil to attend). So I'm having a big birthday bash right here on my blog! And because I love parties so much, it will last the whole month! I'll have many fun posts and giveaways over here throughout the month, but I'll start with a contest!

Now, what could I possibly offer online that would be as good as going to a party? Hum... I don't know... A contest with critiques from an agent as prizes, maybe? Yeah. I though you'd like that. That's why I invited agent Lora Rivera, of Claire Gerus Literary Agency, to the party!

Wait, wait, I'm getting ahead of myself. Before we talk about the prizes, let me explain how the contest will work. As you've probably figured out from the title of this post, my birthday is on March 12th. In honor of that happy date, on 3/12 I would like to read the first 312 words of your manuscript. The best entries will win critiques from Lora Rivera.

HOW TO ENTER

1 - Sign up for the contest using Mr. Linky below. You have until noon on Saturday, March 12th, to sign up.

2 - The contest is open for everyone. You can enter either a finished manuscript or a work in progress.

3 - On Saturday, March 12th, post the first 312 words of your manuscript on your blog. Just the first 312! It doesn't matter if it ends midsentence, that's ok. But please be sure to count! 312 words, not one more, not one less! Oh, and don't add things like "chapter one". Just start where the story starts and go 312 words from there, stopping wherever you...

4 - When you post your entry, post your title, your genre and your manuscript's status (finished or in progress). My entry, for instance, would look like this:

Title: Wherever You Call Home
Genre: Multicultural Women's Fiction
Status: WIP

First 312 words here...

5 - You should post your entry on Saturday, March 12th, anytime between 12:01 A.M. and 11:59 P.M. (EST).

6 - I will go to every blog and read every entry - and I think you should go to a few too, because I'm sure the entries will be awesome! I'll choose 12 finalists (yes, everything is 12, because I really love my birthday), which I'll forward to Lora. She'll read them carefully and choose the three winners. Winners will be announced on Wednesday, March 30th.

THE JUDGE

Lora Rivera began her publishing career at the Claire Gerus Literary Agency in 2008. With an MFA in creative writing from the University of Arizona, she takes an editorial approach to new projects. She is now actively building her own client list. She currently lives in Tucson where she teaches English composition, writes literary and YA fiction, and composes biographies for foster children through Aviva’s Life Book program. You can learn more about her on her website, www.lorarivera.com.

I learned about Lora through her profile on the New Agent Alert section on the Guide to Literary Agents Blog. What caught my attention was that she's interested in all fiction genres (which means everyone gets to enter this contest!) and that she said she "likes fiction that subtly tackles important real-world subjects". I thought that was just wonderful, don't you think? That's why I chose Lora to be a guest judge at this contest, and I think you'll all love her! I'll post more about her (and from her!) next week, so stay tuned!

PRIZES

Yeah, I know that's what you wanted to know! Here are the prizes agent Lora Rivera will be offering to our three talented winners:

1ST PLACE - Query + 20-page critique
2ND PLACE - Query + 10-page critique
3RD PLACE - Query critique

So what are you waiting for? Sign up and be a guest on my birthday party! I love having people over!

We have a winner! And a new contest coming up...

2011-02-28T05:04:00.001-08:00

And we have a winner for the 100+ Followers Giveaway! Congratulations, Jen Daiker! Please em-mail me about your prizes!

Thanks everyone who entered this contest (more people than I expected!) and everyone who follows this blog. You guys mean a lot to me! Hope you'll keep reading and keep entering every contest and giveaway.

Speaking of which... March is the month of my birthday! That means I'm having a big birthday bash with awesome prizes! So stay tuned! A new contest will be announced soon...

Congrats, Jen!

Everleigh in NYC - Cathleen Holst on being a published author

2011-02-24T15:19:00.000-08:00

You've all checked my 100+ followers giveaway right? You've all filled up the form, and tweeted, and now you're all hoping you'll win. Right? Great!

Well, before the giveaway ends, I wanted to tell you a bit more about this wonderful book I'm giving away and the wonderful author who wrote it. The book is called Everleigh in NYC, and it's Cathleen Holst's debut novel. Here's a blurb:

While celebrating Mardi Gras in the big easy, Everleigh Carlisle and her BFF Christina share most things together; gossip, clothes, far too many drinks, and a visit with a voodoo priestess where an unspoken wish is granted, unknowingly altering the course of Everleigh’s life.

Two years later, her dreams are set to come true when she lands her dream job as a columnist for New York’s premiere fashion magazine, C’est Magnifique. Things become complicated when her cheating ex declares his love for her, and she meets Robert Cates, making three important discoveries: 1) Despite her best efforts, she is hopelessly attracted to Robert. 2) She has the bizarre ability to hear his thoughts. 3) He’s her new boss.

Everleigh takes a long awaited bite from the big apple, but are her eyes bigger than her appetite?

Sounds great, right? Now, you might ask, who is Cathleen Holst after all and why should I want to read her book? Well, Cathleen Holst is an amazing writer and a friend I met on this social media world that has provided me with such a supportive writing community. Having been born and raised in Atlanta, Cathleen is a bonafide"Georgia Peach" with her feet firmly planted in the South. She grew up playing on the lawn of Stone Mountain park, beneath its famous carving, strolling the sidewalks of historic downtown Stone Mountain & Tucker and loving every minute of it. Despite whisking a few of her characters off to glamorous places like New York, she has no intention of relocating herself to a city where good ol' fashioned sweet tea isn't readily available. Perish the thought! However, she would have her boarding pass in hand in a New York minute for a shopping trip off Rodeo Drive.

Cathleen currently resides in a small suburb of Atlanta with her husband, three children and two rambunctious dogs. She is also unabashedly obsessed with all things Superman. And when not reading or writing you'll likely find her watching more television (usually Superman related) than any one person should, eating chocolate and then running countless miles to negate the effects of the creamy devil. Her writing influences include Fannie Flagg, Beth Hoffman, Helen Fielding, Sophie Kinsella, and Lindsey Kelk.

And what has it been like for Cathleen to be a published author? Here's what she said:

"In the short time it’s been since Everleigh in NYC has been published, this has honestly been the most amazing, surreal, and fulfilling time in my life. It’s more than I ever imagined it would be. To hear from readers who have offered such kind words about Everleigh’s story warms my soul. It’s so satisfying to know that folks out there have enjoyed the time they’ve spent with Everleigh on her journey from a small town in Georgia to the bright lights of New York City. They’ve laughed and they’ve cried right along with her. I love that. Feels like a job well done.

And during this time I’ve met some amazing authors who so generously offer advice and encouragement every day. It gives me even more to aspire to. I don’t know where this journey will take me, but I sure am enjoying the ride."

Doesn't it sound wonderful? Hope we'll all get to experience that someday! In the meantime, why don't you fill that form on the previous post for a chance to win a copy of Everleigh in NYC and a critique of 100 pages of your manuscript?

The 100+ followers giveaway!

2011-02-22T05:32:00.000-08:00

I know. My resolutions included blogging at least twice a week and I haven't blogged in eight days. My bad! :/ I'll write more about keeping those resolutions and my hectic days (and what I've learned from them) soon. For now, I need to keep a promise I believe I made on twitter last week... The 100+ Follower Giveaway!

Yes, my friends. I've been blogging for seven months now, and last week I reached the mark of 100 followers. It seems like only yesterday I was thanking my first five followers on this blog and now, I can see over 100 little faces on my follower gadget... *wipes a single tear*

It's wonderful to know that over a hundred people are reading my ramblings, cheering me on and being part of my writer as a journey (or just mentally flipping me off for being so annoying, that's okay too). So, as a thank you to all of you, my wonderful followers, I'm having a celebratory giveaway!

PRIZES

I thought a lot about what book to give away. There are just so many I love! But I decided that it would be really meaningful to give away the debut novel of a great writer who's not only one of the followers on this blog but also one of the wonderful girls in my critique group. So the prize this week will be Cathleen Holst's debut, Everleigh in NYC!

But since this is such an important milestone to me, I thought I'd add one more prize to the basket, one that had something to do with the number 100.... So I'll be offering a critique of the first 100 pages of one lucky winner's manuscript! (My critiques are good, I promise. Just ask my critique girls!)

HOW TO ENTER

Easy! Just fill the form below and you're good to go! Being a follower of this blog is the only pre-requisite. But, of course, there are ways to get some extra entries. You get one extra entry for following me on Twitter, and one for following Cathleen. Tweeting, facebooking and blogging about this giveaway will also get you extra entries!

Contest ends on Sunday, February 27th, at 11 P.M. EST. The big winner will be announced on Monday, February 28th.

So what are you waiting for? Fill in the form below to enter! Good luck! And thank you for sticking with me. Hope you'll keep reading!

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Just Kiss Already Blogfest

2011-02-14T07:40:00.000-08:00

Well, today is not Valentine's Day in Brazil. Ours is in June. But that doesn't mean I don't get to celebrate American Valentine's Day too, right? And nothing better to celebrate Valentine's Day than a good kiss! So here is my entry for Christina Lee's Just Kiss Already Blogfest, a kissing scene from my WIP. Hope you enjoy it!

“Hello again.”

His voice is husky and his breath smells of whisky and something exotic, a smell that makes me weak on my knees. He wraps his arm around my waist and I shiver at the touch of the cold glass on my back, making him laugh and wink at me before moving his glass. With his free hand, Marcelo pulls a string of hair (stiff from all the hair spray) away from my face. He leans forward, his lips almost touching my ears.

“How come you look better every time I see you? That’s not fair, you know.”

I take a deep breath, inhaling his scent of Polo Sport, sweat and clove.

“And why is that?” I whisper, barely holding myself.

“Because it makes it very hard for me to resist you.”

I exhale loudly and he holds me tighter, his breath getting faster. I can feel a chill go up my spine and all the way into my head, making me dizzy. Come on. Just kiss me already.

Marcelo seems to read my mind and slowly turns his face, brushing his lips against my cheek until he finally reaches my already parted lips. He pulls me closer, his glass of scotch still cold against my back, and kisses me until I can barely breath. Then he moves an inch away from my face and grins.

“I know I’m a chicken and a jerk for not having called. But it’s great to see you again, Ms. Oliveira.”

He leans in for another kiss and I smile.

“Good seeing you too, Mr. Jerk.”

Yeah, I'm a writer... But please don't tell anyone! (Or leading a not-so-secret double life)

2011-02-09T04:31:00.000-08:00

A while back I read a post on Roni Loren's blog about admitting you're a writer and the six stages of response you'll get from others. "Some of us choose not to say anything at all when we first start writing," she wrote. "We keep it our little secret because we're worried about what people will think and our little dream is just too fragile to be picked on at that point. Then, when we do get up enough courage to start admitting it (this sounds like AA--My name is Roni, and I'm a writer), we often brace ourselves not knowing what to expect."

When I read that, I felt like waving my hand in the air and screaming "me, me, that's me!" Yes, I'm a writer. And no, I haven't quite gotten around to admitting that...

And then you tell me the obvious. "You have a blog called An Aspiring Writer's World, you have a word-count widget, you tweet as a writer, you tweet your blog posts, you have a critique group. How on earth do you think you haven't admitted you're a writer, you big lunatic?"

I know. It sounds freakish. But here's how it works: I'm a journalist by formation, but I don't work as a journalist, and I've had a book published in Portuguese but that was a long time ago (and it wasn't a really great book). I'm Brazilian, but tweet in English, which means very few of my Brazilian friends follow me on twitter. And that means I have several groups of people in my life.

Group 1: The Brazilian friends who do tweet and notice my writing tweets. Those are a minority, mostly my journalist friends who say "omigod, I have a fancy writer friend who's writing a novel in English, that's just so awesome, I wish I were that amazingly smart!" (Okay, that's just one friend, but she does boost my ego.) The point is, these people know, and they think it's awesome.

Group 2: The Brazilian friends who do follow me on twitter, but apparently don't know how to deal with a Brazilian tweeting in English about being a writer and using a whole bunch of writer community words and abbreviations they don't know. So they just ignore that and don't make any comments.

Group 3: The Brazilian friends who have known about this MS for a while, because they have given me authorization to base some of my characters on them. Those are in on the secret, and it does come up every once in a while, but not too often.

Group 4: My "real life" people. My family, my job (those two things walk hand in hand, since I work for my family's company), my non-writer, non-journalist, non-artsy, non-tweeps and non-inspiration-for-characters friends. My family kind of knows there's a novel in the works, but they don't know much about it and they probably think what Roni Loren describes as stage 2: "What a fun hobby to keep him/her busy."

Group 5: The people who think being a writer is just so glamorous and they're always asking when the next book is coming out (the first one was published seven years ago, in Portuguese, by a small publisher, but still lots of people think this is a big deal because they could search for my name in bookstores). Those usually include my parents' friends, and I usually avoid their inquiries about my writing.

Group 6: The people who know nothing about it. To them, I'm just someone working with ISO certification and quality systems and stuff like that.

And then we move to the other side of my life, where we have...

Group 7: The English-speaking writers I know through twitter and blogging and through my critique group. The ones who know I'm a writer, who interact with me about the subject of writing, who share that other section of my life with me.

Conclusion? I lead a double life. I connect with the blogging community and, on twitterverse and the blogosphere, I feel like a writer. I can open myself up, talk about my manuscript, interact with other writers. But, somehow, it feels like another life. I know my face is there, but there's something about being a writer on social media (and in my second language) that feels like a shield. It feels like I'm one person in Portuguese, another in English. And I'm always watching my back, wondering who should be let in on my secret, who knows, how much they know.

Which is why I felt the wind knocked out of me when one of my internet-versed employees mentioned he googled me and found my blog. I freaked. Does he read it? Are people I work with watching my other personality? Will that affect my "real life"?

I don't know if many people feel like this, but I'm guessing I'm not the only one. Social media can feel like such a good shield from the real world, and long-distance friends I've never met in person give me the comfort of belonging to a community, without the pressure of having my family and friends know about this. It feels like I'm allowed to fail. Does anyone else feel that too?

So, I guess what I'm trying to say is that there's another stage to Roni Loren's theory. There's the "I'm a (insert your real life position here) by day, writer by night and I'm not ready to deal with the pressure of putting those two together" stage. It's an exhausting one, I'll tell you. But it's the one I can't get out of right now, at least not yet.

And what's the point of this post? There isn't one. Consider it my Writers Not Quite That Anonymous introduction. And feel free to share yours.

I'm Gabriela, and I lead a double writing life. This is my story. What's yours?

That dreaded first sentence

2011-02-07T10:01:00.000-08:00

We've all heard it. You need a great opening chapter. An amazing first page. A knock-out first paragraph. A first sentence that hooks the reader right away. Apparently, our readers are easily distracted and we have less and less time to hook them. Why take a whole page just to risk losing a reader on the first paragraph?

It really freaks me out. And that was why I felt pretty nervous when I first read about the It Was a Dark and Stormy Blogfest Contest that Brenda Drake is having over at her blog. The prizes are amazing: critiques by agent Weronika Janczuk. The task? Not easy.

Brenda and Weronika want just the first sentence. Just that. One tiny little period and you're done. Hard, right? I debated a lot about it. I've been switching two sentences around in my manuscript for hours, trying to figure out which one looks better as that first thing that will catch my readers when they open my book (yes, I'm assuming it will be a published book eventually, so please humor me here).

Well, here is the sentence I chose:

I never thought I would long for coach class seats, but then again, I never thought I’d even have the guts to board a plane like this one.

The other one was longer and more descriptive. I felt that this one is more catchy. Now, what do you think? I welcome opinions! I have today and tomorrow to polish this baby and post it on Brenda's blog, so please, help! And wish me good luck!

An interview with Wendy Tokunaga

2011-02-01T11:55:00.000-08:00

As you all know, this Friday I'm giving away a book I fell in love with, by an author I recently discovered (if you don't know about that, go check out the New Year, New Book Giveaway and share an author you've recently discovered to enter).

Well, this author I'm so glad to have learned about is Wendy Tokunaga, a Californian writer who fell in love with Japanese culture and with an "Osaka-born surfer-dude". Wendy's debut novel, Midori by Moonlight, was published in 2007. On Friday, I'm giving away her second novel, Love in Translation, about an American woman who goes to Japan searching for clues about her family, but ends up finding a lot more than that. It's fun, insightful and very well-written. Wendy also provides manuscript consultation services for writers. You can find more about her on her website and follow her on Twitter.

Since Wendy is such a great writer, I thought we should hear a bit from her to get you really excited about reading her books - and to learn a bit about writing in the meantime. Here she talks a bit about writing multicultural fiction and using subplots, among other great things.

Gabriela - What are the main challenges in writing multicultural fiction?

Wendy - I think there are several challenges in writing multicultural fiction. On the one hand I want to introduce Japanese culture and engage readers who know little or nothing about it, which I assume would comprise the majority of my readers. But whenever I read books about Japan as someone who has lots of experience with the culture, I’m hoping for more information and insights than the typical ones. So I want to make sure to also take care of those readers who are familiar with Japan and give them something extra, and hopefully not over-explain things they will already know. In writing all kinds of novels you need to think about your reader—it’s not just all about you and your personal vision of the book!

Another tricky thing is dealing with what people perceive as cultural stereotypes. But the trouble with stereotypes is that they are often based on some kernels of truth. How to balance this and make the characters well rounded, engaging and believable is always a challenge. Sometimes avoiding over-worrying about this and just concentrating on making the characters human can be the best way to handle it.

G - How do you describe details about a new place without having the novel feel too descriptive?

W - I’m one of those readers who always appreciates less description over long flowery paragraphs so I guess this is how I write naturally. I guess one thing to keep in mind is not setting the whole description up in one introductory paragraph, and make sure the aspects of description can be part of the action throughout the scene.

G - You have many subplots in Love in Translation, which gives it a lot of depth. How did you manage to connect all of them? And what are your main tips for someone writing a story with many subplots?

W - Thank you. I like subplots, but I prefer not to have too many and the same goes for what I like to read. You have to be organized and make sure all the loose ends are tied up. And you have to give readers little reminders of subplots throughout the book, but not hit them over the head each time. And of course the subplots have to also move the story forward in some way and/or give insight into the characters or themes of the book. I think having trusted, smart readers to read your story can help. See if they get confused about the subplots. Ask them if they make sense. Try taking out a subplot and see if the story survives and is better or worse for it. Use software that helps you organize your scenes or use 3x5 cards and make a storyboard so you can keep track of your subplots. Think about rearranging subplot scenes to see if they can be more effective somewhere else.

G - Can you talk a bit about the manuscript consultation services you provide?

W - Thanks for asking! When I was struggling to get my novels published I found that it was most helpful to take classes and get manuscript consultations from published authors.

I teach online courses through Stanford University’s Online Writer’s Studio and I also do private manuscript consulting for writers working on novels or memoirs. What I provide is developmental editing, which translates to giving feedback on elements such as plot, structure, pacing, voice, characterization, etc.

I really enjoy teaching and helping writers make their books the best they can be with an eye toward polishing the work so that it will be in shape to query a literary agent. Or if you’re looking to self publish, you’ll still want your novel to be in top shape. You can go to www.WendyTokunaga.com and click on “Consulting” for more information. I always provide feedback on the first five pages free of charge.

Isn't she great? So what are you waiting for? Go back to the giveaway post and leave your comment to enter!

The 99th page blogfest

2011-01-28T06:49:00.000-08:00

Just saw a blogfest going on today and thought it looked really fun, so I'm in! Here's how it works: everyone posts the 99th page of their WIP and then goes around commenting on other people's 99th pages. The point is to see if people would turn to page 100.

Now, I debated a bit about posting this, because page 99 does give quite a bit away... So, if you're not looking for spoilers, I wouldn't advise you to read it. Nevertheless, I think it's a good one and I'm looking forward to getting your opinion!

Oh, and if you want to join the blogfest, here's the link for it.

Hope you enjoy it!

Wherever You Call Home

Page 99

“Jesus, Cleo,” she yells again, causing more heads to turn. “Are you sure you want to stay here?”

Chapter 28

I sit in the living room by myself, flipping through television channels. Work starts tomorrow. I’ve been here for a week, furnishing the apartment, getting a car, shopping for my dad (his suitcase never arrived, courtesy of the tiny airplane) and spending time with my parents. We gladly realized the town itself doesn’t have the whole rural look, or any cows, for that matter, although you can find those within just a few miles from where I live. We explored the place, ate American food and enjoyed my dad’s cooking, since he hated the aforementioned American food (“Who puts sweet sauce on ribs?” he’d yell every time). After a week of excitement and lots to do, they left this morning. It’s just me now.

The apartment is tiny. There’s a small living-room / dining-room, a one-person-only kitchen with no dishwasher, and a regular-sized bedroom with a closet that doesn’t even begin to accommodate all my stuff. The bathroom is cold and doesn’t look completely white, even though we’ve done a lot of scrubbing. I guess it’s a typical American apartment, one of those places planned for just one young person to live in that seem common around here. Still, it feels small, compared to my parents’ house. And it feels lonely too.

I turn on my computer and smile when I see Marcelo is online. We had less than four weeks together, and then I was gone. We knew we couldn’t get attached. We knew it wasn’t supposed to last. We knew it would be stupid and long distance relationships never work, especially when you’ve been together for less than a month. It just wouldn’t make any sense. So

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Hope you liked it! Looking forward to your comments.
And please do go back to the previous post and comment on that too to enter a giveaway of a really amazing book!

The New Year, New Book Giveaway!!!

2011-01-27T08:22:00.000-08:00

I just noticed it's the end of January already and I still haven't had a giveaway! Well, it's time to fix that!

Since a new year is all about fresh beginnings, I thought it would be fun for everyone to mix it up a bit, maybe get to know some writers you weren't familiar with. So I thought of all the books I've read recently by writers I didn't know and ended up really enjoying, and I picked one of them to give away.

Now, this is how the giveaway will work. To enter, you must follow this blog and leave a comment on this post about a writer you recently discovered. After all, we would all love to get to know more and more great writers!

Next Friday, February 4th, I'll use random.org to choose one of the commenters as the winner! And the prize will be....

Love in Translation, by Wendy Tokunaga

I met Wendy through Twitter, liked her website and decided to get one of her novels. I wasn't at all disappointed. Wendy's genre is a lot like what I've been working on myself - multicultural romantic comedy, or multicultural humorous women's fiction, whatever you prefer - and I absolutely loved her writing style. She does a great job at presenting a new culture and a new romance, and mixes it up with backstories that give her novel more depth. I particularly enjoyed how she manages to flow between several subplots with ease - that's something I'm trying to learn, and I now look up to her. Love in Translation is a wonderful novel, and I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

So, go ahead and tell me what great writers you have discovered recently, so I can add them to my reading list! Remember: to enter the giveaway you must follow the blog AND comment on this post, and your comment must include a suggestion of an author you've discovered recently.

Good luck!

Breaking the messy writer myth

2011-01-24T10:05:00.000-08:00

People who follow me on Twitter know my office's roof has been blown away by the wind, and I'm now moving from empty office to empty office until mine is repaired. This nomad life is a nightmare. I don't have all my files with me. I don't know exactly where things are. The chairs aren't as good a mine. It takes me so long to find a place and get settled that my work has been affected. Which is quite ironic, considering writers are known for being hectic, unpredictable and working under the oddest of circumstances. To be fair, I'm not working as a writer here. I'm working with something completely unrelated to writing. But, still, I can't help but wonder if a writer's life really is that hectic after all.

I've read this in a whole bunch of writer blogs: you should be organized with your writing life, but in your own way. What does that mean? I just realized it's just like having an office, even if it's a messy one. It doesn't matter if your office is big or small, if it's a cubicle or a whole room, of your desk is freakishly clean or kind of messy. You have your office, your place of work. It's the same every day. You know where to find things and you can work without even paying much attention to your physical space. But take that away and suddenly you're a mess, spending a lot more time searching for things than actually doing anything. It affects your work.

I suppose it's the same with writing. A routine is your office. Even if you barely notice it's there, you need it right there. It can be big or small. It can be neatly organized or a little messier. For all I know, your routine could be writing every other day, in non-linear fashion, going back and forth on your story and sticking post-its to your computer. But, believe me, it is a routine. It's your own space, where you know how to do your work. And it's definitely necessary.

The 5 stages of never accomplishing New Year's resolutions (Oh, right. Those resolutions...)

2011-01-19T04:43:00.000-08:00

I have shocking news! You might want to sit for this, because I'm pretty sure it's something you have never heard before and it will completely change your life. Okay, ready? Here it goes: new year resolutions are pretty hard to keep.

People who read this blog often (thanks for doing so, by the way), already know my resolutions: finish and polish my MS (hopefully before the RWA Conference in June); blog at least twice a week; do my best to increase readership and interaction on this blog; lose 20 pounds; plan my wedding without freaking out too much; make peace with my day job. Sounds like a lot? Well, so far, it's been sounding a little overwhelming to me. And we're only half way through January!

I'm getting anxious. And that little devil in my shoulder keeps telling me I'll never be able to pull it off.

But I'm not going to blab about writing strategies or ways to keep up with resolutions. I've seen that in way too many blogs and you probably have too. I know what I'm supposed to do (I think). So I'll do it the other way around.

THE 5 STAGES OF NOT ACCOMPLISHING NEW YEAR RESOLUTIONS

1 - DENIAL (ALSO KNOWN AS POSTPONING, STALLING, ETC.) - "I'm not eating too much, this weekend was atypical." "Just because I didn't write yesterday it doesn't mean I won't meet my goals." "Who said I'm not blogging enough?" Yeah. Keep telling yourself that. Stalling too much, postponing things, having way too many lazy days. All of those are ways of denying the obvious - you're not keeping your promises and you'll get nowhere if you keep this up. Just one more piece of chocolate, though...

2 - ANGER (OR JUST FREAKING OUT) - Why me? Why can't I win the lotery so I can have the year just to write my novel and plan my wedding? Why couldn't I have gotten the good, thin genes so I wouldn't have to work out? Why can't I be like my friend who said chocolate commercials with fountains of melted chocolate disgust her and make her feel sick? (And why did I have a sudden urge to punch her when she said that?) Why can't I make money from writing? Why? Why? Why? *huge pout* (I don't need to say anything else about this stage, do I?)

3 - BARGAINING - "I'll just eat this scoop of ice cream and tomorrow I'll eat nothing but lettuce." "I don't feel inspired today, but I'll write three thousand words tomorrow." "Just one more e-mail to my wedding planner and I'll stop obsessing and get to work." We bargain with ourselves for everything. We keep telling ourselves it's the last time, we'll start that diet on Monday, we'll write more tomorrow... Well, guess what? That could go on for a whole year.

4 - DEPRESSION (ALSO PRESENTED AS SELF DOUBT) - "Why do I even bother?" "I'll never be great at this job and I'll certainly never enjoy it." "I'll never finish this novel. Even if I do, I'll never get published." "I'll never lose those 20 pounds." I remember going to a shrink's office in grad school and getting a form to fill out. One of the questions was "Do you feel a sense of impending doom?" To me, that defines the depression stage. "Impending doom." We'll never be good enough, so why should we try? That's also printed on the napkins over at loser club, by the way.

5 - ACCEPTANCE - "I can't fight it, I might as well accept it." What should we accept? Well, that's the turning point. It could be accepting you won't be able to do it and giving up on resolutions. Or just accepting your needs and wishes won't change, so you might as well give it a try. Which option do you choose?

That little bit of truth in fiction - Villains

2011-01-14T09:19:00.000-08:00

Now on to the harder part of using real people as inspirations for characters. As I said, I've been blessed enough to have friends allow me to share every detail of their lives on my novel. But somehow I think that's a lot less likely to happen with the people who hate my guts...

Every story has a villain. I'm not talking here about the evil scientist who wants to conquer the world, the alien who has a mission to destroy Earth or even the mysterious serial killer responsible for several deaths in a small village. Once again, I'm talking about the problems we'd encounter on regular contemporary fiction. Like the bitchy cheerleader. The obsessed ex-girlfriend. The awful boss. They're all realistic. We've all heard of someone who knows someone like that, or, in some unfortunate cases, met them. And we all know our characters are supposed to be realistic, which immediately makes us think of the "villains" in our own lives.

There are basically two cases that could happen here:

1 - Your villain isn't inspired by anyone in your life, but they don't know that - I don't know about you, but every time I'm writing about someone mean, even if they have nothing to do with the people I've met in my life (thank God!), I picture some people getting paranoid over this. If I'm writing about a terrible boss, I imagine all my former bosses glancing at me awkwardly, or calling me in the verge of tears asking for forgiveness because they never meant to be that evil (I’m sure some people must fantasize about this). No matter how different fictional people are from the ones in my life, I always wonder if someone will think "is that really what she thinks about me?" And that, of course, paralyzes me. I start worrying about making the fictional boss, mother, sister-in-law or classmate as different as I can from the real ones. I obsess about what people will think. I go out of my way (and, consequently, out of my plotline) to make sure those villains don't resemble at all anyone I know, that no one will ever wonder if they're the inspiration for those bad people. And then I tell myself to get a grip. No one in their right mind will think they’ve inspired someone with attitudes completely unlike their own. If they do, well, then they’re just as paranoid as I am.

2 - Villains actually are somehow inspired by people you know - Well, that's a real pickle. There are certain real events that are just too good (or, in this case, too bad) to pass. But, as I said, it's not like you can call the people you don't get along with and ask, "Hey, remember that time you were a complete asshole and did that outrageous thing to me / my best friend / my mom? Mind if I write about it?" Well, actually you could, but I have a feeling that call wouldn't go too well. So what do you do? Turn it into fiction, of course. I've heard that as long as you change all identifiable information (name, physical characteristics, age, hometown or anything that would definitely give away to the world who that person really is), you're good. Still, that freaks me out a little. (That's the moment when I imagine myself in court, someone I barely remember accusing me of all kinds of dirty things.) So I exaggerate things. Take them out of context. Mix and match. And try to use as little truth as possible, usually dissolved into a sea of fictional events.

Is that enough? I don't know. Even though I take all possible precautions, I'm still afraid I might get that nasty call from someone who's sure that villain is based on them. But the truth is, those events are probably true in someone's life. If I can't make my readers think that could actually happen to them (and how awful it would be if it did), I won't have a good book. There will be characters that don't get along with my MC, just like there are people who don't get along with me. That's impossible to change, unless I write an unrealistically perfect character (or if I make myself perfect, but I hardly see that happening). So let's worry about writing first. If we get our books published, then we'll worry about changing our numbers.

What do you think? How close to reality have you gone when it comes to a villain?

P.S. - We've had a guest post here before, by author Heather Wardell, about using real life events in fiction. Her tips are pretty good, so you might want to check out that post, if you haven't read it.

That little bit of truth in fiction - People we love

2011-01-12T04:12:00.000-08:00

Back to answering that question of how real is too real in fiction. We've discussed places. Now, what do we do about people?

There are usually two kinds of people in our novels: heroes and villains. I'll start with the good people, because, let's face it, it's a whole lot easier. We'll leave the villains for the next post.

I have been lucky enough to have three of my best friends say "go ahead, use any detail you want about me, my life is yours" (well, maybe not quite so dramatically, but it was something to that effect). That's great, right? Initially, yes. I have people to base my MC's best friends on. I have stories to tell (believe me, the true stories are a whole lot more unbelievable than fiction).

But then it hit me: this is fiction. I keep writing with the real people in my life, and sometimes I'll go "true friend would never react like this". And then I have to slap myself and try to remember that this is not my actual friend. They're all great in real life, that's for sure. But... the story has to follow a plot. I have to make changes in their personalities and their lives. I have to make things fit into a structured story, and not try to structure a story around the lives of the people I know.

It seems obvious, right? But it took me a while to realize that. And I'll bet I'm not the only one. More often than not, the people we love in our real lives will be inspirations for our MC's loved ones (or even for the MC herself). And then, without knowing, we'll find ourselves worrying more about making the character faithful to its inspiration than making it fit in the actual storyline. And that leads us to common mistake when writing characters based on real people:

Common mistake 1: Too much stalling. Because we all know life doesn't follow a plot, right? It's unstructured and messy and, sometimes, things happen for no reason, and they're still great. Well, not to your novel. I for one tend to drop on the page a number of anecdotes that, as hilarious as they are, don't add much to the story. That's a no. Keep the stories that keep the plot moving and that can be connected. Save the rest for friends gatherings. Those are always hysterical after a few beers.

Common mistake 2: Spend a lot of time making characters so real that they become way too complex. "How can that be? Aren't agents always saying they want to see complex, multi-layered characters?" Yeah, well, not as complex as real people. (I'll give you a little time to pout and complain about how contradictory the publishing industry is now.)
Done? Okay, now think about it. When reading a book, we like surprises. We like characters that are not too predictable. That's great. But we also like them to make sense. If they're acting all over the place, there better be a great reason for it - and there better be just one character doing it, not five. The truth is, our characters have to be complex, but just a tiny bit predictable. "But I know my friends so well they've become predictable!" To you, they have. Not to your readers. The problem is we take our characters for granted, thinking we already know them so well in real life. And that could be exactly the problem. When you know someone too well, you don't take the time to explain how their mind works, because you know that. But your readers don't. The goal is to make readers fall in love with your characters, not show the world how well you know your friends.

Wow. Those two common mistakes sure gathered a whole lot of issues. What do you do to resist the temptation of committing those sins? A plotline. Structure your story and stick to that structure. It doesn't move the story along? Cut. It doesn't fit into a certain character pattern? Cut.

It's hard. I know. I've made so many cuts on my MS and I haven't eliminated half of those problems yet. Actually, if my critique group reads this they're having a big laugh. I can imagine them thinking "Who are you to say that? You have those mistakes all over your story and we have to keep telling you to cut them over and over again!" Well, see, crit chicks? At least I've been paying attention to your advice. Doing it is a whole other story...

That litlle bit of truth in fiction - Fictional places

2011-01-10T04:07:00.000-08:00

In Brazil, we say that every joke has a bit of truth deep down. The same is probably true for fiction. Of course you don't have to be a recovering alcoholic to write about someone struggling with addiction. And I'm pretty sure Audrey Niffenegger hasn't time-travelled, and J.K. Rowling didn't find out she was a witch at age 11. But there's always something there that can be traced back to reality. A feeling. A reaction. A friend. And those things can come closer and closer to reality if you're not writing things like fantasy or sci-fi (in other words, if you're not coming up with a new world or a witchcraft school). If you're writing contemporary fiction, real people and places may come to mind more often than you'd like, and you can find yourself stuck somewhere between fiction and reality.

Allison Winn Scotch answered one of my questions on her blog about a month ago, and she named the post "How real is too real?". I think that's a pretty good question, one that I'll try to answer in a few posts, because I think it's too broad to answer in just one. I for one have been struggling with that lately. How much reality can I use in my novel and still call it a novel?

I'm in a bit of a pickle here. Since my character's crisis moment has a lot to do with the place she's at - which has a lot to do with a place I've been to - I've decided to create a fictional town for her to end up in. I thought it was the best decision. I didn't want to use the town I've lived in, because that might sound too close to a memoir, and this is a novel. Using the real town could make it seem like every character I put there is based on someone I met there, which isn't the case. It might also make people who do live there feel defensive, and I don't want that to happen. And I don't know many places in the area, so I couldn't really use another real town because I wouldn't be able to get the details right. So I made up a town. But that fictional town is in a real state, in a real country. And my character refers to other real towns all the time. She's from one and she goes to other real towns. So, I've been asking myself, does that make any sense? Should I really have one fictional town in a novel where all the other cities are real?

Allison Winn Scotch has also mentioned this in a previous post. "For me, it all depends on context. For example, in The One That I Want, I created an entire town in Eastern Washington that - best of my knowledge- doesn't exist. This was because I knew that if I set it in an actual town, I couldn't get all of the tiny details right without having grown up there. Creating something fictional allowed me more freedoms, in terms of the characters and the background and the setting - I could never have gotten all of the strip mall locations right or the names of the restaurants or the schools or whatever. BUT, that said, once I created this town, I DID ensure that the rest of the geography and details were accurate: the climate of Eastern Washington, the town's location in terms of the rest of the state, etc.," she wrote.

That's about the same thing I've been trying to do, but for a different reason. In her case, she was worried she might not get all the details right. In my case, I'm worried I might not get some details right, and some way too right, making it hit too close to home for some people. Does that make sense?

My answer, not unlike Allison's, was to try to get the regional details right without offending anyone, and then take some liberties regarding the town and the company my character will work for (also made up). I don't know if it's the right way to go, but it feels right to me. In my case, I think I need to distance myself a bit from reality, while still being realistic.

I know there's a lot more to using real events in fiction than just geography, and I'm planning to address other issues (like characters based on real people and using real events) on follow-up posts this week. But, for now, I'd like to discuss this particular bit of the problem.

What do you think? What would you do? Have any of you ever made up a town? Have any of you used real towns in your novels you weren't very familiar with? Have any of you had problems with either making up a place that didn't sound believable to your readers, or using a real place and having local readers complain about what you wrote?

Hitting the writing snooze button

2011-01-06T03:51:00.001-08:00

I didn't use to have any trouble waking up. I've always just set my alarm and it only had to buzz once. I would shut it off, get up and go about my day. Lately (a.k.a since I started working early in the morning), waking up has been a battle. I used to be completely against the snooze function on the alarm, since it meant disturbance in my precious last minutes of sleep. Now, I can't wake up without using it. I'm addicted. The alarm goes off and I know I have to get up. I understand that. But I'm so sleepy, and my bed is so cozy... I wake up every morning going "why, God, why?". It's awful, really. I postpone it as much as I can. Sometimes I even get up, go to the bathroom (morning need to pee usually beats exhaustion) and go back to bed. Nothing wrong with that, right? Even hootsuite has its snooze button, why can't I?

Yeah. A few more minutes in bed are great even for social media owls. But then, eventually, I finally get up. I wash my face, throw some clothes on and start my day. And once I start it, it's done. I drive to work thinking "man, if only I hadn't stalled that much, I'd be getting a lot more done by now".

Ever feel that way? I do all the time. And that goes for my writing too. I stare at my folder. I know I must write but... How do I start? How do I pick up from where I left of? It involves thinking, an going back a few pages, and doing some research. And just looking at that file seems so overwhelming, and I hit the snooze button. And then again. And again. And when I finally get up, open the file and start writing, it's not overwhelming. I just write. And I think I really should have waken up earlier.

What about you? How often do you hit the snooze button in your writing?

Happy 2011! Greetings and some resolutions...

2011-01-03T06:20:00.000-08:00

Okay. I've had my break. I've gone to the beach, tried (unsuccessfully) to get a tan, drank way too much champagne on New Year's Eve (don't worry, I won't go into detail about the consequences of that drinking, although I'm almost sure it involved a toilet). Now it's time to get back to real life and the challenges and opportunities that come with a new year.

No. Wait. I'm not supposed to be talking about challenges just yet. Not before I wish everyone a happy new year, of course! So, happy 2011! May this year bring only great things to all of you (and may you all keep reading this blog, although God knows why you do it).

Right. So now onto the challenges and opportunities. It wouldn't be the first week of January without some good old resolutions, right? I have some of my own, of course. But I won't just leave it at that. I'll write them down here and try to provide some way in which I can be held accountable for those. Which means these are topics I will be coming back to in this blog. (A little pause to convince myself that I'm sure I want to do this.)

Okay. I'm ready. Here they go!

1 - Finish my novel - Yes. That is completely mandatory this year. Preferably this semester, before the RWA Conference in NYC, which I will be attending. So, I'll be updating my W.I.P. Progress gadget and I count on you to publicly humiliate me if I'm not writing enough. I'm done with the stalling. I must finish this manuscript in 2011!

2 - Make peace with my day job - I know... So hard to do... But I need it and I have no other options, so I might as well suck it up and do it right. I'm against doing anything without giving my best. So, this year, I'll give my best on my day job. Because I have to become a grown up and that's it. I really don't know how any of you can help me with that, but, well, I guess your support is enough. My boss will do the "holding me accountable" bit on this one.

3 - Not become a bridezilla - I've heard wedding planning can drive you nuts, and, let's face it, I'm already quite on the nuts side (ok, that didn't sound great, but you know what I mean). So I must not let this wedding freak me out. If I start talking about it way too much (and way too hysterically), feel free to virtually slap me and tell me to get a grip. I mean it (just don't slap too hard, please).

4- Lose those 19 pounds I still have lingering here - Yeah. Cliché. I know. But what can I do? They have to go. I have a white dress to fit into next year.

5- Blog at least twice a week - I know I should be doing it every day, but I'm just not ready for it yet. And I won't commit to something I won't be able to do. So, what I can commit to is providing new posts at least twice a week. Hope they'll be fun and helpful ones!

6- Turn this blog into a supportive online community and meeting spot for writers and readers - Well, I know I can't effectively do that on my own, but I'll do my best to provide good content and promote interaction. Please help me by making suggestions, inviting friends to read, tweeting the posts and, most importantly, interacting! That is the main thing here. I want it to be fun and light, and I want people to get together and create a real community here. That would be the best thing of all.

Those are my resolutions. I hope I can keep them and I hope you'll be here every step of the way with me. Now, what do you say we pop some champagne and celebrate the new year? (ugh!)

A little vacation

2010-12-25T19:34:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving for the beach tomorrow, for a much needed week of rest. After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided to not bring my laptop with me. Which means you won't be seeing any new posts here for a week. I'll be back on January 3rd with more (hopefully) fun posts.

In the meantime, I want to thank you all for reading this blog. I started it this year and to have so many wonderful followers has been truly great. I hope you'll keep reading next year and bringing new discussions to the table.

So, happy new year to everyone. May next year bring only joy to all of you. I hope you enjoy what's left of 2010. I'll see you in 2011.

Cheers,

Gabi

Word from Jessica Faust - An agent talks about labels, chick lit and women's fiction

2010-12-22T06:42:00.000-08:00

A few months ago, when I was about to launch Women's Fiction Month on this blog and before I announced the Find Your Own Label Contest, I decided to send a few questions about labels, chick lit and women's fiction to an agent. The agent I chose was Jessica Faust from Bookends, LLC.

As you all know, agents are very busy and their time is precious, so I didn't hear back from her then.This morning, however, I got an early Christmas present! I opened my inbox and there it was: an email from Jessica Faust, apologizing for the delay and giving wonderful answers to my questions! Now, I know we've had the discussion about labels, we've had the contest and you've read a lot about the topic here. But an agent's perspective is an agent's perspective, and none of us are about to dismiss that, are we? Even though Women's Fiction Month is over, I somehow don't think you'll mind reading Ms. Faust's thoughts on this. So, here it is, my interview with Jessica Faust, for you to enjoy.

First, a bit about Jessica Faust: Jessica is a literary agent and owner of Bookends, LLC. Among many other genres, she represents women's fiction. You can learn more about her and her agency at Bookends's blog, on the About Us page of their website, or you can follow her on Twitter. Please note that Jessica is closed for submissions until January 5th, 2011.

INTERVIEW WITH JESSICA FAUST

Gabriela - On the “What we represent” post on your blog, written in 2007, you say one of the things you are not looking for is chick lit, and you give the following explanation: “As for chick lit, it’s a market thing. Chick lit has taken such a dive in the market lately that you dare not even hint that your book might be called chick lit. It’s a tough sell. The rest is open.” Do you still feel the same way about it as you did three years ago? Do you dismiss a query that starts by categorizing the manuscript as chick lit?

Jessica Faust - Let me start by explaining that I honestly never got chick lit. When chick lit became hot so many years ago I had on my list that I was looking for it and I really, really wanted to like it, but I never found anything I could represent. I think at the time there was a lot of confusion about what chick lit was and often what it boiled down to was the same storyline. A lot of what was published was pink, about a young girl in her early 20s living in an urban environment and looking for love, trying to find the perfect job and battling with friends in some way shape or form. Ultimately, it was a young girl trying to find herself.

However, there is another definition of chick lit and that was voice. There was a certain young, wry voice that defined much of the chick lit, especially those books that launched the genre like Bridget Jones’s Diary and A Girl’s Guide to Hunting and Fishing.

I still think that writing either of those definitions of chick lit is tricky today and not likely to find you a home. I don’t dismiss a query specifically because it uses the term “chick lit,” but I’m not excited about reading it either. Typically the only time I’ll request something described as chick lit is if the story description looks like it transcends the genre.

G - On your post about women’s fiction, you say chick lit is now taboo, but “that doesn’t mean you still can’t write a light, humorous book about a young woman in an urban setting. You’re just going to need to give it a little more oomph, a little more angst than a lot of the previously published chick lit titles had, and you’re not going to be able to call it chick lit.” What do you consider a little more oomph and angst? What is it that you consider “traditional taboo chick lit” and what has to change for a book to be published today?

JF - If you look at the so-called chick lit authors who are still writing successfully today, Jennifer Weiner for example, I think you’ll see that there’s a depth to her books that a lot of those pink-covered books didn’t have. Sure she might have been writing about the young, 20-something finding her way in life, but she gave her more than boyfriend and job troubles, she gave her character and her character’s conflicts depth.

What do I consider oomph and angst? I consider it more than surface issues. It’s okay for the heroine to struggle with a boyfriend and a job, but there has to be more and that more is what takes it into the realm of women’s fiction. Is she also trying to find her birth mother or trying to learn why she was abandoned as a child? Is coming off a divorce after a very young marriage, is she in an abusive relationship? These are sort of typical examples of depth, obviously I think writers can come up with something more creative.

"Typically the only time I’ll request something described as chick lit is if the story description looks like it transcends the genre."

G - You mention previously published chick lit titles. Which titles do you think are pure chick lit and would not get publish now? And which titles do you think represent this repaginated version of chick lit?

JF - I hate to mention specific names and titles, but I think if you look for the pink covers you’ll easily find a list.

G - Do you consider the work by authors like Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin and Marian Keyes pure chick lit? Would the books these authors write fall into the “taboo” category? Or do they have that oomph?

JF - As explained above I think they all have more oomph. Keep in mind, I haven’t read any of these authors in years.

G - Are you into labels? Do you like genres to be more generic (women’s fiction, romance, mystery, etc.) or do you like them as specific as possible (things like mainstream commercial contemporary women’s fiction, or YA Christian paranormal romance)? Do you think a genre benefits from a specific label, or is it easier to just call it all women’s fiction?

JF - If you know your sub-genre I’d like to know too. It’s not about labeling your book as much as it’s about understanding who your audience is.

"It’s okay for the heroine to struggle with a boyfriend and a job, but there has to be more and that more is what takes it into the realm of women’s fiction."

G - We are starting a contest to come up with a new name for this kind of work (That was the Find Your Own Label Contest, which we've already have, and you can find the winners here). We think the label chick lit doesn’t represent anymore what we want to read and write: fiction written by and for women, that focuses on relationships in the MC’s life (romantic or not) and approaches serious issues but includes elements of comedy and romance, making for a light but not frivolous read. Do you think this genre would benefit from a new label?

JF - I think you’ve described women’s fiction. I don’t think you need to come up with a new label. I think the problem with chick lit is that it doesn’t necessarily say to me “serious issues” even if you’re using comedy and that’s an important distinction. Many of those pink-covered books lacked any real serious issue (at least in my mind).

G - Do you support this kind of initiative by writers? Should we be trying to define the genres we write and stand up for them, or should we just write and leave the rest to agents and publishers?

JF - Worry less about defining your book and more about writing it. The market will be the one who makes the distinction. I don’t think it makes sense to try to “fight the establishment” so to speak on a name or because you write something they don’t love. The reason for the decline in “chick lit” is a decline in the market for the books. You can’t force readers to start buying something they don’t want.

G - Last but not least, would you be interested in this kind of women’s fiction? Is that something you see as still having a market, or is it really dead, regardless of the name we give it?

JF - I love women’s fiction and I always enjoy something that can make me laugh.

Thank you so much, Jessica, for taking the time to answer these questions. Now, everyone, has this helped? What are your thoughts on this?

A Writer's Freak-Out, Blocked-to-Death Crisis (and how to get out of it)

2010-12-17T04:55:00.000-08:00

I. Am. Stuck. That's it. You know those moments when you look at your manuscript and go blank? When you feel like shooting the computer screen with its sad little dash blinking on an empty page? When you look at your MS and think WTF? That's me. I'm in that place right now.

First, i'ts embarassing that this is happening again. I posted a lot about feeling doubtful and discouraged towards my MS back in August. That's when I added this word count gadget, the one I can't even look at right now. Then I wrote about writer's block in September. Of course I had some good writing times in between. But now here I am, all stuck and filled with self-doubt again. I'm even worried my wonderful followers will all run for their lives.

So, that's it. I've stalled as long as I could. I've written close to nothing in the past month. And now it's time to man up and move forward. It's time to take action. But how?

Well, I did some soul-searching and here is what I decided will help:

1 - Focus on part 2:
My MS has two parts, taking place in two different places. I've finished part one (I have to polish it, but it's finished). Now I've started part 2, and that's where I got stuck. My first instinct, of course, was to just go back to my safe and pretty part 1, and edit, edit and edit. Which is good, of course. I've made some advances (even though my word count has taken quite a blow, I know it will be for the best). But it won't get me any further on my writing. I realized I'm using part 1 as a tool for my stalling. So, no more of that. From now on, I have to face the dificulties and move on to part 2.

2 - Make a better outline.
I have done an outline of my story. I know where it's supposed to go, I know the main events that will happen. But I don't know exactly how to get to them. That is the problem with part 2. I forgot to focus on the new characters that will be introduced in this part, in a way that now I don't know what to write simply because I don't know who I'm supposed to introduce. I have to write a better outline for part 2. One that will show me each new character, the role they'll play, where the climax will be and how the characters from part 1 fit into it. And I have to balance my MC's internal issues with external events happening around her. Wow. That's a lot. Which brings me to my next step:

3 - Don't let myself get overwhelmed.
Yeah. Right. It is overwhelming already. This whole two-part book is quite a pickle. But I just have to tackle one thing at a time. Figure out what part 2 really is and how it will lead me to the climax and to the clash of the two worlds.

4 - Research.
Well, duh. If I don't get any research done, I'll never be able to completely bring the reader into this new place my MC is discovering.

5 - Get to know my MC better.
Now, this is tricky. As most debut authors, my MC has a lot of myself, but she's not me. It is fiction, after all. So of course I'll use some of my own reactions and stuff like that. But I must learn who is Cleo and who is Gabriela. In order to do that, I might redo the interview I've done with her (it's divided in two posts, part 1 and part 2, in case you're curious).

And, oh, yes, the most important of all, the one that I trust will give me the nudge I need right now:

6 - Turn to my critique group.
Yeah, I talk a lot about my critique group. You know why? Because they're awesome. I've been stuck before and let my manuscript sit there, untouched for a year. That won't happen again. I now have more willpower and, more importantly, I have support. Believe me, a good critique group is the best thing that could happen to a writer. I'll turn to them and I know everything will be okay.

So, those are my 6 steps for getting out of inertia and moving forward with my manuscript. What are yours?

Secret Enemy Santa

2010-12-11T12:45:00.000-08:00

I love Secret Santas. I always enter hundreds of them and then have to go around shopping for everyone. But there's one style of Secret Santa that is even more fun: Secret Enemy Santa.

I don't know if you have them in other countries, so I'll explain. It's just like Secret Santa, except you have to buy something you know the person won't like, something funny that messes with a specific detail about the person you know she hates, or you know makes her unique. For instance, a really pale friend has gotten a moisturizer for dark skin. A hairy guy has gotten a waxing kit. So on and so forth.

I've entered one of those this year and I'm sitting here considering what I should get my "enemy". I'm trying to compose in my head a mix of things she hates and that are really specific about her, so I can make everyone laugh the moment she opens the present. I have to find a way to mess with her in a way that's funny to everyone in the room. I have to find somehing that enhances her personality, especifically the things she hates the most.

Now, in Brazil we have a strong tradition of messing with friends, but to some of you it might seem quite hard to do. Why? Because you love your friends and you want to showcase the good stuff about them.

The same thing happens to our characters. We love them. We know everything about them. We want to showcase all the wonderful things we've so cleverly created about them, all those things that make them lovable. But sometimes we have to play Secret Enemy Santa and find that one thing that will push our MC's buttons. We have to get all their quirks, their flaws, their silly mistakes and the things they hate the most about themselves and show them to the world. We have to expose them to everyone else in the room and embarass them in order to get some laughs (or some gasps) from our readers.

It's hard. It feels like a betrayal. It will lead to hours of typing and deleting. But it must be done. And, in the end, everyone else in the room (a.k.a. our readers) will find it funny. And the character might be a little pissed off, but he/she will still be our friend.

Don't worry. You won't lose them. You'll just get a few laughs at their expense.

Being a writer during the holidays

2010-12-03T04:06:00.000-08:00

I made a list. I still have about ten presents to buy, some of them for Secret Santas that will happen next week. And, just like it happened for the past two weeks, for the next two I have something scheduled for every night of the week. Literally every night. Even Mondays. Graduations, birthdays, Christmas novenas, Secret Santas... You name it, I have it. And let's not forget I just got engaged (yes, I had to throw that in, I'm just too excited about it) and I have a wedding to plan.

With Christmas shopping, celebrations, parties and everything else that goes on this time of year, it gets pretty hard to find time to write. I'm feeling so guilty about it I can't even look at the word count widget on my sidebar. This past month, I've written a total of 12 pages. Twelve! In a month! At this pace, my 2012 wedding might actually be closer than my complete, polished manuscript.

From what I've been seeing on Twitter and on my own critique group, I hardly seem to be an exception. I've never been one to feel depressed during the holidays (I'm a big, big Christmas lover), but I actually am feeling a bit overwhelmed this year. Probably because in previous years I wasn't half way through a novel and neither was I blogging (or working full time, for that matter).

So, what do I do? Well, find time, that's what. I'm now trying to sneak a little writing during work and going through my schedule in my head. But here's the truth: what I really need is to make good use of the little time I have and, most importantly, to not give up. I've found that when I go for a few days without writing, I seem to lose practice and things don't come as easily to me. So my advice is to write, even if it's 15 minutes a day. Just get it out. And when the holidays are over, we can all stay up a little late putting in the effort.

It's kind of like a diet, really. Let yourself enjoy the holidays and have some dessert without feeling guilty, but don't throw salads and gym out the window altogether or you might have a bad surprise in January. And once the holidays are over, put in the effort to lose those extra pounds. Or, in this case, to add those extra words to your manuscript.

What about you? What do you do to keep in writing shape during the holidays? Please, do share. I'm taking all advice here! Now maybe I'll have just a tiny slice of chocolate panetone tonight...

Have you read "The Hating Game" yet?

2010-12-01T10:24:00.000-08:00

Today is a very special day for my Twitter friend Talli Roland. Her debut novel, "The Hating Game", is being released as an e-book (it's coming in paperback soon too, don't worry)! I've been lucky enough to be among the people who got the for-review-only copy of "The Hating Game" and I highly recommend it. For all of you who love chick lit, this is a purchase you won't regret. Talli's writing is funny and engaging, her characters are hilarious (you gotta love a sarcastic MC, right?) and her novel is a real page-turner. Other than the fact that it kept me up and affected the amount of sleep I got (big, big problem, I'll tell you), this novel was just delightful. Funny, sweet and everything else you could possibly expect from a good chick lit book. I recommend it. And that is why I'm joining Talli's Web Splash today, to help get "The Hating Game" way up in Amazon ranks! Read on to see how it works and help Talli make her novel a big hit - it certainly deserves it!

"THE HATING GAME" BIG WEB SPLASH!

Help Talli Roland's debut novel THE HATING GAME hit the Kindle bestseller list at Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk by spreading the word today. Even a few sales in a short period of time on Amazon helps push the book up the rankings, making it more visible to other readers. So go on and buy it already! It's awesome! You can do it in Amazon.com or the UK Amazon.

No Kindle? Download a free app at Amazon for Mac, iPhone, PC, Android and more.

Coming soon in paperback. Keep up with the latest at Talli's website, www.talliroland.com, and follow her on Twitter too!

About THE HATING GAME:

When man-eater Mattie Johns agrees to star on a dating game show to save her ailing recruitment business, she's confident she'll sail through to the end without letting down the perma-guard she's perfected from years of her love 'em and leave 'em dating strategy. After all, what can go wrong with dating a few losers and hanging out long enough to pick up a juicy £2000,000 prize? Plenty, Mattie discovers, when it's revealed that the contestants are four of her very unhappy exes. Can Mattie confront her past to get the prize money she so desperately needs, or will her exes finally wreak their long-awaited revenge? And what about the ambitious TV producer whose career depends on stopping her from making it to the end?

Doesn't it sound great? So go ahead and get it! I guarantee it will make a great holiday read!

Runner-up guest post: Yes, We Are Mainstream, by Latoya Lewis

2010-11-29T03:50:00.000-08:00

Now, onto to the guest post by Latoya Lewis, our fabulous runner-up who suggested the name "Mainstrem Fiction". In this post, Latoya shares some reasons for the new moniker for the Chick Lit genre. You can also connect with Latoya on Twitter or on her blog, Confessions of a Book Lover.

YES, WE ARE MAINSTREAM

When I think of the quintessential Chick Lit novel, I think light and fluffy topics that appeal to women. After talking to a few women, I find I’m not alone. Others share this opinion of the genre. While many books publish and sell very well with a light and fluffy premise - think Bridget Jones’ Diary, that same female fan base is now looking for books that delve into tougher issues. The same women who fell in love with Bridget Jones’ Diary now have husbands and careers, maybe even kids, and the books they choose to read will reflect those changes.

Chick Lit maintains a strong following. The same women who loved Chick Lit in the 90’s love it now — myself included. However, as Chick Lit gears up for a much needed genre and name change, those same women thankfully anticipate the changes.

While renaming Chick Lit is a necessary part of the process, the name change represents only part of the changes the genre is undergoing. The most important changes are occurring as the genre picks a broader range of topics to cover, which suit the women who fell in love with Chick Lit in the nineties but have now grown and matured. Those women need a new story to represent who they are and what they want today. Chick Lit is changing to suit those readers, which in turn suits the writers of the genre as well. Broadening the genre gives authors a little more to write about than a man or a job. More writers will willingly declare their work as part of the new genre. And as the genre broadens its range to include all of the things important to women, not just the light and fluffy stuff, more readers will check out, read, or buy books from the new and improved genre. The genre has the potential to draw in a wider audience and a broader range of authors.

The best example of a book that bridges the gap between light and fluffiness and a book full to the brim of doom and gloom is “If I loved you, I would tell you this” by Robin Black. It is a compilation of short stories but each story alone represents where Chick Lit needs to go to keep grabbing its audience. Any novel that strikes the balance between a romantic comedy and War and Peace suits where Chick Lit must go to keep its original following and broaden its fan base.

What do you think? Can the new and improved Chick Lit support the many topics pertinent to women? Or must Chick Lit stay true to its humorous man-searching job-hunting shell?

Interview with Tallie K.

2010-11-25T07:51:00.000-08:00

It's time to hear from our big contest winner, Tallie K.! Tallie's wonderful (and winning!) name suggestion was RAW (Real / Relatable Aspiring Women) Fiction, which we thought really touched on one of the most important things on this beloved genre of ours, which is relatability. I think it's so brilliant we all want to hear more about it, right?

First, there are a few things Tallie has been putting together and would love some amazing writers to join her. She is looking forward to connecting with some beginning and experienced writers. Tallie has been working hard on her writing and she's looking for some critique partners to share her work with (I highly recommend it, having a critique group is fab!). Tallie's also doing her own version of NaNoWriMo with a friend - a writing challenge starting January 1: 50,000 words by March 31. More time and less pressure - and she would love more people to join. So, if you're interested in either joining her event or being her critique partner (or both!), just contact her through her blog or Twitter.

So let's hear more about RAW Fiction, the relatability factor and what this amazing aspiring author expects for this clever genre!

Gabriela - Are you a big fan of Chick Lit? What made you enter this contest?

Tallie - Yes, I am! I've always been a book person (I may or may not have my library card number memorized from constant use), and I think it was a natural progression to go from reading the Baby-sitters Club series to chick lit. All of the books on my extensive to-read list (minus Harry Potter) are chick lit. So little time and so many yet to read!
I entered the contest because I love a creative challenge. I fortuitously stumbled upon your blog and was intrigued by the idea of re-labeling my favorite genre of books. I think it's been misunderstood by many, and I am eager to help debunk any of the misconceptions. Also, the awesome prizes were pretty alluring. :)

G - You've given us your wonderful explanation of your name choice, but we want more! What is RAW Fiction? What does that name represent?

T - I want RAW fiction to represent a community - I think it goes beyond describing the novel's characters to also the writers and the readers themselves. Like I said in my brief explanation: full of stories ABOUT real/relatable aspiring women BY real/relatable aspiring women FOR real/relatable aspiring women. That sense of connection to each other's journeys through life I think is important to emphasize. At the core, it's about showcasing strong women who overcome life's obstacles, that can help others to empathize and feel like they're not alone in their own struggles since the themes are universal.

G - What is a absolute must-have in a RAW Fiction book? And what would disqualify a book from fitting into the genre?

T - Aside from adhering to the components of the acronym, an absolute must-have would be a personal tone to the narrative. I think the way it's told -the voice- is important and a distinguishing quality. Reading it should feel like you're listening to a friend spill her life story to you. It doesn't necessarily have to be light and funny, but it's got to feel honest and sincere.
I don't like to put excluding parameters, but not having a relatable aspiring woman as a centerpiece would be a disqualifier for me as it goes against the name. RAW fiction is about support and empowerment, and having a protagonist who is relatable and strong to fight and work for what she wants is key.

"At the core, it's about showcasing strong women who overcome life's obstacles, that can help others to empathize and feel like they're not alone in their own struggles since the themes are universal."

G - RAW Fiction stands for Real/Relatable Aspiring Women. Why choose those particular aspects of this genre? How important are those aspects in the books you read?

T - When I was brainstorming names for the contest, I thought about my favorite chick lit novels and what I liked best about them. What makes or breaks a novel for me is the protagonist. Can I relate to her? Am I interested in her story? If it's a no on both, the odds are I won't finish the book or really even choose to read it. I think choosing novels is kind of like choosing friends. You have certain characteristics you're looking for, and if that person doesn't measure up, you're probably not going to want to spend an extended amount of time with her (ie sitting through 300some+ pages of her life story).

I think a major part of what makes us want to turn the page and feel so connected and invested in the characters is the relatability factor - the idea that that someone else (even if it's fictional) has gone through the same thing. At its best, those stories can offer optimism when facing similar obstacles or humor that maybe my life isn't that bad. Also, the ambitions and adventures that follow often lead the protagonist to learning something about herself along the way, and I think that sense of personal triumph is inspiring and helps to ground the genre away from a misconstrued sense of levity.

G - RAW Fiction is new, so we need to know quite a bit about it. What authors and/or books do you think would fit perfectly into this genre and why?

T - Characters like Becky Bloomwood (Sophie Kinsella's Confessions of a Shopaholic series) and Bridget Jones (Helen Fielding's Bridget Jones's Diary) come to mind when I think of protagonists/stories that exemplify this genre. Both of them have really relatable personalities and plights that make the novels easy and enjoyable to read. It's all about that connection to the everyday woman. Who hasn't had trouble resisting a sale, finding your self-confidence and Mr. Right, or adhering to your New Year's resolutions?
I know the contest was to re-label chick lit, but I see the RAW fiction genre as more versatile. I think books traditionally categorized in women's fiction easily could fit under this genre as well. Based on the name's simple criteria, RAW fiction has the potential to transcend current classification rules to include all novels based on relatable, aspiring women no matter the protagonist's age, lightness of tone or depth of the issues they face.

"Based on the name's simple criteria, RAW fiction has the potential to transcend current classification rules to include all novels based on relatable, aspiring women no matter the protagonist's age, lightness of tone or depth of the issues they face. [...] It would be great to get to the point where there doesn't need to be a distinction or separate standard between chick lit and regular fiction/literature."

G - What future do you see for the RAW Fiction genre? What would make it a success?

T - I hope the RAW fiction re-labeling will help to alter people's interpretation of chick lit and maybe women's literature in general. It's not just fun and fancy-free stories with tidy happily ever after endings. While many do have a light tone, it doesn't mean that their subject material is shallow or inconsequential. These stories shouldn't be written off as less serious or deserving of praise than other genres. It would be great to get to the point where there doesn't need to be a distinction or separate standard between chick lit and regular fiction/literature.
In order to be a success, readers and critics need to keep an open mind with this genre, and I think having more smart women protagonists fill the shelves will help in this effort. The more examples of strong modern women who face everyday issues to become self-sufficient and successful, the harder I think it will be for people to see this genre as simply fluff and insubstantial of value to society.

And the winner is...

2010-11-22T08:33:00.000-08:00

I know judges always say it was a close call, it was a hard decision, blah, blah, blah. But this time, it's true. It really was a close call. I thought the three days I left for judging just wouldn't be enough time. But, finally, we have reached our decision.

I don't need to remind you who our amazing guest judges were, right?Published authors Margo Candela and Robyn Harding, and Chick Lit Shorties gals Julia and Jess! They cast their votes (and so did I, of course) and we have a winner!!!! First, though, let's start with our runner-up.

AND SECOND PLACE GOES TO...

This name suggestion was very well received by our judges and it very much deserves the acknowledgement. The contestant went down the traditional route and really made a case for her name. We loved her pitch!

So, congratulations, Latoya Lewis (aka @latoyaalloway)! Mainstream Fiction is our wonderful runner-up!

This was Latoya's entry:

Mainstream Fiction by @latoyaalloway

"Mainstream Fiction equals books about women and the things that are important to them, i.e. men, work, kids, shoes, girlfriends—oh and did I mention men. I chose the name because it represents ChickLit but adds sophistication. It also provides the benefit of appealing to a broader range of readers and writers. Not to mention all the people who will check out the “Mainstream Fiction” bookshelf just to see what qualifies as Mainstream Fiction. But don’t worry, if the novel contains a female main character that even has the slightest idea what Louboutins are, the novel qualifies."

Isn't it awesome? Well done, Latoya!

These are the great prizes Latoya will be getting:

- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- A $10 Amazon gift card
- A guest post on this blog

Congratulations, Latoya! Thanks for the great entry!

AND NOW TO THE WINNER!

So, the first place, the new name we think represents everything this genre stands for, the one that will be the renewed, repackaged, restylished Chick Lit is...

RAW (Real/Relatable Aspiring Women) Fiction, by Tallie K. (aka @tallister)!!!!

Here is the explanation our winner gave to her brilliant name suggestion:

"To me, the chick lit genre is full of raw emotional stories about real relatable aspiring women written by real relatable aspiring women for real relatable aspiring women. I think one of the genre’s best features is its voice – often it’s like listening to your best friend tell you her adventures. Hopefully, emphasizing the characters’ relatability and earnest endeavors can help the genre earn more respect and understanding that it’s not just girlie fluff and fantasies because each story has themes that hit close to home."

We thought that wonderful name and even more wonderful explanation fits the genre perfectly, don't you? Especially the relatability part - isn't that something we're all looking for in this genre? As our guest judge Julia so perfectly puts it, the name "hints at the emotional journey that a Chick Lit book is, from the voice, to the examined relationships, to the obstacles that are present."

Way to go, Tallie! Here are the prizes you'll be receiving:

- A 10-page critique by Chick Lit Shorties' editor Jess McGill
- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- Robyn Harding’s latest novel Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis
- A $20 Amazon gift card
- An interview about the genre you re-named to be published on this blog

Isn't that just great?

So, here we have it, our wonderful winners:

1st - RAW (Real/Relatable Aspiring Women) Fiction, by Tallie K.
2nd - Mainstream Fiction, by Latoya Lewis

Congratulations, Tallie and Latoya! I'll be emailing you about your prizes! And a big thank you to everyone who participated. You rock! Stay tuned for our next contest (and, of course, for Tallie's interview and Latoya's guest post)!

We have our finalists!

2010-11-18T12:13:00.000-08:00

Okay, everyone, we have our five wonderful finalists! Thanks to all who voted and cheered our wonderful semi-finalists on. It has been great. Now, please, let's have a big round of applause for our finalists, who are..... (drums, please)

Romantic Women’s Fiction by @MelissaRoske

SWEET Lit (Smart, Witty, Estrogen-Empowered, Titillating Literature) by @lowcarbpinay

She Lit by @mahoneychris70

RAW Fiction (Real/Relatable Aspiring Women) by @tallister

Mainstream Fiction by @latoyaalloway

Wow! So much diversity in our finalists! That's just amazing! I'm sure the guest judges and I will have a very hard time choosing the winners.

Winners will be announced on Monday, November 22nd. Thank you so much to all of you who entered and who voted. Congratulations and good luck to our wonderful finalists!

Your time to vote - The Find Your Own Label Contest

2010-11-10T14:58:00.000-08:00

Wow. If it was hard before, you can't imagine how much harder it just got with those amazing explanations I got here. Really, these girls are good with pitches. I have no idea how you guys are going to choose your favorite but, well, you have to!

Here's how it goes: I'll post the entries and their explanations below, numbered. Use the comments to vote for your favorite. Only one vote per person, please!

Entry # 1: She Lit by @mahoneychris70

Short and sweet, “She Lit” embodies the spirit of women and the written word without cutesy condescension or ill-fitting modifiers, such as “Lipstick” or “Heels." She Lit does not confine itself to one conventional box, but pours itself into many, pushing the boundaries of women’s fiction and spilling over into the mainstream.

Entry # 2: RAW Fiction (Real/Relatable Aspiring Women) by @tallister

To me, the chick lit genre is full of raw emotional stories about real relatable aspiring women written by real relatable aspiring women for real relatable aspiring women. I think one of the genre’s best features is its voice – often it’s like listening to your best friend tell you her adventures. Hopefully, emphasizing the characters’ relatability and earnest endeavors can help the genre earn more respect and understanding that it’s not just girlie fluff and fantasies because each story has themes that hit close to home.

Entry # 3: Femme Lit by @luciesimone

Femme Lit represents feminine feminist literature for the modern woman on the go as she struggles to balance love, career and family in a time when women are expected to do it all and to do it with style and panache!

Entry # 4: Women's Friction by @JocelynGR

What would be the point of fiction without a little friction, a little energy? Friction lacks reverence for timing, mood, season or circumstance as it moves down the path of its own choosing, targeting everyone and missing no one. It’s our reaction to the constant friction that defines us, gives us the tools we need to grow, repair, heal, find the courage to change the balance of our chaotic worlds, and ultimately gives us the wings we deserve.

Entry # 5: SWEET Lit (Smart, Witty, Estrogen-Empowered, Titillating Literature) by @lowcarbpinay

I picked this name because it not only describes the novels we love so much but also the readers. These books are all about different women’s journeys to find the perfect pair of jeans, the perfect man or the perfect career while learning their self worth and building friendships and relationships and as a reader I go through the same journey every day.

Entry # 7: Mainstream Fiction by @latoyaalloway

Mainstream Fiction equals books about women and the things that are important to them, i.e. men, work, kids, shoes, girlfriends—oh and did I mention men. I chose the name because it represents ChickLit but adds sophistication. It also provides the benefit of appealing to a broader range of readers and writers. Not to mention all the people who will check out the “Mainstream Fiction” bookshelf just to see what qualifies as Mainstream Fiction. But don’t worry, if the novel contains a female main character that even has the slightest idea what Louboutins are, the novel qualifies.

Entry # 8: Romantic Women’s Fiction by @MelissaRoske

Straightforward and to the point, with no bells and whistles, this Chick Lit-label replacement says it all: Fiction for women in which romance takes center stage. Sure, chick lit can be funny, and shopping and stilettos may feature prominently. But what truly gives chick lit its heart is the emotional connection the heroine shares with those she loves: family, friends – and, with a bit of luck, Mr. Someone Special.

Entry # 9: EmpLit ("Empowered Literature") by @autumnrayven

Empowerment is synonymous with women rising above preconceived stations. What better name than 'Empowered Literature' for women writing to change the world? Shortened to 'EmpLit' it sounds like 'imp'lit which is fun. We may be empowered but we should never forget to have fun.

Entry # 10: Swift Lit - (Smart Women's Issues for Today) by @tallister

I tried to encompass a couple key characteristics of chick lit in the acronym; it features smart modern women who struggle with issues that many of us and our friends face in real life. Swift also means quick and clever, which these stories are – they’re fast-paced, fun to read, and witty because there’s truth to them. I think this name helps to explain better the genre than simply stating it’s for chicks, which doesn’t say anything concrete and can lead to misunderstanding and stereotyping.

Made your choice? Then go ahead and use the comments to vote. Voting will go on until November 17th, midnight (EST). Please only use them to cast your vote, so it doesn't get too messy! Just post your favorite number on the comments and you're done! Please identify yourselves and don't comment anonymously (if you do, sign your comment). And, of course, don't use the comments to criticize any entries. Comments bashing another semi-finalist will be deleted and those votes will not count, but I'm hoping that will not happen. After all, we only have cool and respectful people around here, right?

So go ahead and vote! Finalists will be announced nex Thursday, November 18th. Good luck to all!

OBS: Please note we don't have a #6 anymore. The contestant with entry #6 has withdrawn, so we now have nine semi-finalists. Nothing will change in the process and we will still have five finalists. I'm deleting all votes for number 6, and I'm not changing the numbers of any other entries, so just keep using the same numbers.

We have our semi-finalists!

2010-11-08T08:29:00.001-08:00

It was a tough choice. We got many amazing suggestions through the #ReChickLit hashtag and we had lots of fun reading them. I've been cursing myself for saying we'd only have ten semi-finalists! I wish I could have a lot more, because the entries were all so amazing! Thanks to everyone who entered our contest, your tweets were very fun!

But we have made our choice. We considered how much they fit the genre and the meaning they brought to the table. We thought a lot about it. Now, after much deliberation, we have our top ten! Some of them are original and witty, others are traditional and straight-forward. But they all have one thing in common: they are awesome! Here are our wonderful semi-finalists:

She Lit by @mahoneychris70

RAW Fiction (Real/Relatable Aspiring Women) by @tallister

Femme Lit by @luciesimone

Women's Friction by @JocelynGR

SWEET Lit (Smart, Witty, Estrogen-Empowered, Titillating Literature) by @lowcarbpinay

Sassy and Classy by @betsy_knapp

Mainstream Fiction by @latoyaalloway

Romantic Women’s Fiction by @MelissaRoske

EmpLit ("Empowered Literature") by @autumnrayven

Swift Lit - (Smart Women's Issues for Today) by @tallister

Congratulations to our wonderful semi-finalists! You are all so creative!

Now, let's hear your explanations. Yes, ladies, that's right. You have to explain your choices!

Here is how it works. Each semi-finalist should write up a paragraph that explains what the name means, why you chose it and why you think the genre would benefit from it. Please keep your paragraphs short (definitely less than a hundred words, ideally less than fifty). I realize some of you have tweeted short explanations along with your names, and you'll notice I've cut them in the list above. So please include those explanations in your paragraph, along with anything else you find important. In other words: write your pitch.

You should e-mail it to me at gabrielalessacarvalho at gmail dot com until Wednesday, November 10th, at 6 P.M. (EST). I will post them here on Wednesday night and we'll move on to the public voting part of the contest. If you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

Congratulations to our top ten! And thank you to everyone who entered. Come back for voting on Wednesday!

The Find your Own Label Contest is on!

2010-11-01T07:22:00.000-07:00

Ready? Set... Go!

The Find Your Own Label Contest is on! From now until Friday you can tweet your name ideas for the genre we love using the #ReChickLit hashtag. Remeber, you must use the hashtag or I'll never see your entry.

You can tweet as many names as you want. Your imagination is the limit! Entries should be sent until Friday at midnight (EST). Entries sent after that won't be considered. The top ten will be announced on Monday, November 8th. One little change in the rules: if a semi-finalist name is tweeted by more than one person, the first person to tweet it plus one more person chosen through Random.org will be asked to send in their explanations. The one who gets to represent the name will be chosen based on the explanation.

To read the genre description, go to the previous post.

Oh, and in case you forgot (I highly doubt anyone would, though), here are our very awesome prizes:

Winner:

- A 10-page critique by Chick Lit Shorties' editor Jess McGill
- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- Robyn Harding’s latest novel Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis
- A $20 Amazon gift card
- An interview about the genre you re-named to be published on this blog

Runner-up:

- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- A $10 Amazon gift card
- A guest post on this blog

So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and start tweeting! I want to see those awesome names you've come up with!

The Find Your Own Label Contest!

2010-10-29T11:05:00.000-07:00

Now that you've met our wonderful guest judges, it's time to give you the details about our contest. The plan is to come up with a new name for the genre we love so much (yes, chick lit, but we're not supposed to mention that name, remember?). Again, we know we won't change the industry over night. That is not our intention (and neither is to kill Chick Lit, for sure). We just want to have fun, generate buzz and stir up the discussion, to let people know we love this genre, no matter what name they give it. Sounds good?

So, rewinding a little, the genre description is:

• It’s written by women and has them as one of its strongest target audiences;
• It’s contemporary;
• It can take place in any kind of setting and it’s not defined by geography or culture, even though those items might play an important role in the plot;
• It has a female main character facing issues that real women can relate to;
• The MC is usually an adult woman, but there is no age limit;
• The MC is complex and has more than one issue on her hands;
• It presents a humorous voice, wit and, more often than not, sarcasm;
• It can deal with serious issues and even make you cry sometimes, but it’s usually written in a more upbeat tone. In the end, it’s fun, even if it’s full of sad moments;
• Relationships, romantic or otherwise, are at the core of the plot and are very important to the MC (either for their existence or for the lack thereof);
• The MC can be single, married, divorced, widower, etc. Love has some importance in her life, but it might be that she can’t find it, or that she’s lost it, or that it’s fading away, or suffocating her… Any kind of relationship status and view towards love is acceptable;
• The MC’s family and friends usually have a relevant presence in her life and in the plot, as does her career;
• A knowledge of fashion by the MC is not a must-have, but having it won’t make the book unimportant;
• It doesn’t necessarily need a Happily Ever After ending, but it should end on a hopeful note. In the end, the MC should learn something and get closer to achieving her goals, or at least be in the right path.

And your task is to come up with a brilliant name for that genre! Ready? Great! On to the contest info then!

Come up with a name already!

The contest idea is simple: come up with a name for this beloved and unnamed genre. Something that reveals all its layers and complexities, and that will be able to own it some respect.

Names should be posted on twitter under the hashtag #ReChickLit (remember to use the hashtag or I'll never see your entry). Why #ReChickLit? It can mean a whole bunch of things. Rename Chick Lit? Repackage Chick Lit? Rethink, recover, recognize... That's what we're trying to do, right? So, #ReChickLit will get us started!

Contest will start on Monday, November 1st. Wait for my post saying it has officially started before you begin tweeting (names tweeted before that won't be considered). Names can be suggested until Friday, November 5th, midnight (EST). During that time, you can suggest as many names as you want!

You can either send an original name you come up with or an existing name you think should be used (like “women’s fiction” or “romantic comedy,” for instance). Names will be compiled and the judges will choose the top 10. Those ten semi-finalists will be announced on Monday, November 8th.

Next step

People in the top 10 will be notified through Twitter and asked to e-mail us a short (no more than 100 words) explanation to why they think that name should be used, what they think it represents and how the genre would benefit from it. Detailed guidelines for these explanations will be posted along with the top ten announcement, on November 8th.

If we choose a name that has been tweeted by more than two people, we will ask two people to send in explanations: the first person to tweet the name, plus one more person, chosen through random.org, to send in their explanations. The one person who will represent the name will be chosen based on the explanation. If a semi-finalist name has been tweeted by two people, both will get to send in their explanations so we can choose the one who will represent the name.

Your time to vote

After we get the explanations, it's your time to vote! The top 10 names and their explanations will be posted here on Wednesday, November 10th. And that is your cue! You get to vote for your favorite and make a difference in the choice! Voting will go on from November 10th to November 17th, midnight (EST). The five most voted will be our grand finalists! Finalists will be announced on Thursday, November 18th.

After you have chosen our grand finalists, the judges will choose our big winner! Results will be announced on Monday, November 22nd.

Sounds like a lot of steps? Don't worry. I'll have posts to guide you each step of the way. The most important thing is to have fun!

Judges and prizes

As you have seen on the interviews, I have asked a stellar team to help me judge this contest.

Chick Lit Shorties’ gals Julia and Jess

Published author Margo Candela

Published author Robyn Harding

Yes, the judges are great. And the prizes couldn’t be better!

Winner:

- A 10-page critique by Chick Lit Shorties' editor Jess McGill
- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- Robyn Harding’s latest novel Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis
- A $20 Amazon gift card
- An interview about the genre you re-named to be published on this blog

Runner-up:

- Margo Candela’s latest novel Goodbye to All That
- A $10 Amazon gift card
- A guest post on this blog

Are you in? So wait for the starting post and let out what you really think represents this genre.

In the meantime, feel free to discuss it on the comments. What genre is this, after all? And, of course, spread the word! Tweet, blog and facebook about it. The more the merrier!

Meet the Judges - Chick Lit Shorties gals Julia and Jess

2010-10-29T05:15:00.000-07:00

Last but not least, our third and final guest judges (yes, judges, plural, but third, as in one, because they're just that tight!). I present you the Chick Lit Shorties website girls, Julia Griffith and Jess McGill! So, what's their story? Well, there once were two problems: Problem One, readers who loved the Chick Lit genre had no place to turn to read a quick short story before bed, while waiting at a doctor's office, or even for a quick breather at work. Problem Two: writers in the Chick Lit and Women's Fiction genres had a hard time building up their resume with publications, a hard time getting their name out there to readers who would love their writing - if only they knew it existed. In stepped Julia Griffith and Jess McGill, one who loved the social media world, the other with writing world experience, and both with a passion for Chick Lit and Women's Fiction. Combining their powers with the magical dust of everyone who has since participated, the ChickLitShorties.com site was born. Now a fun community of writers and readers, ChickLitShorties.com has become more than a publication of Chick Lit and Women's Fiction Short Stories; it's become a playground of words, martinis, lipsticks, and chocolate. And that, hopefully all would agree, can only be called a solution. And if you just can't get enough of Chick Lit Shorties, you can also follow them on Twitter.

So here is what Julia and Jess have to say about chick lit, labels and their wondeful website.

Gabriela - What is it about chick lit that you love so much?

Julia - The voice, for sure. Reading a Chick Lit book is like hearing a friend tell a story. You can curl up, relax, and prepare to feel!

Jess - While other books often make you feel "talked at", I love the feeling of being "talked to" that Chick Lit books give you.

G - What do you think of this taboo over the name chick lit? Does the genre need to be repackaged?

Julia - Sadly, whether I think "Chick Lit" is a light, fun nickname, or a demeaning title to discount thousands of authors or books before they're even read, does not matter, because the taboo is there. But you know what? A taboo sometimes just makes something more desirable!

G - Do you think it's just the name, or has the genre changed a bit too? What do you consider to be the new, improved, going on strong chick lit?

Jess - I think it's both - the name itself is huge, but also so much has happened since the genre was born and since the genre started getting a bad rep. One thing that has happened is this whole battle has gotten the community of both women readers and women writers closer together, and all of that communication has resulted in even better books out there.

G - Do you think calling something women's fiction is sexist? Should we try to equal men and women as writers, or is there a niche that belongs only to women?

Julia - I think the question in marketing isn't whether it's sexist, it's whether it's dead on. If you call it Women's Fiction, will everyone know what you're talking about? Personally, I think the most important thing is to categorize according to the story, and not by the author. And then to be consistent about it. So if you have a light voice with modern issues but it's written by a man, stick it in to Women's Fiction! I think only then will we hear opinions from "the other" side on whether or not this label is in fact sexist :)

"But you know what? A taboo sometimes just makes something more desirable!"

G - Why start the Chick Lit Shorties website?

Julia - Whether you're a Chick Lit writer or a Chick Lit reader: doesn't everyone just want a quickie sometimes? :) If you'd like a more serious answer, we get all in-depth about it on our site :)

Jess - I had an answer. But now that I know what Julia's is I think it's too boring to include. So what she said.

G - You get lots of shorties submissions and entries on your contests. Did you expect this kind of response when you first started the website?

Jess - I'm really not sure what I expected about the numbers, but I'll tell you one thing - I definitely didn't expect the kind of quality that we've received! Some of the stories, some of the voices, they're really future bestsellers. I also think another great way to judge quality is to take a peak at beyond what has been published, at the quality of the slush pile. And our slush pile is full of some amazing potential, just requiring some more practice, some more finesse.

Julia - Hm is expecting and dreaming in the same category? :) What has caught me off guard the most is how much of a community Chick Lit Shorties has grown into. I think when you're among friends with the same interests you learn more, you grow more, and you also have more fun. That I honestly can say I did not expect. But it's also what I love most about it!

G - What can we expect from your website next? Anything juicy coming up?

Julia - Nope, we've decided to become boring. Just kidding! We've really got some great stuff coming up. For starters, our next round of short story publications is around the corner, and the stories are truly fantastic! Plus, we already have 5 published authors on board for more Extra Shorty Contests. And those are just the things we're able to reveal :)

G - What do you look for in submissions? How can our readers increase their chances of getting a short story published on Chick Lit Shorties?

Jess - Reading a good story is like watching a magic show: you willingly suspend your disbelief to enjoy Ooohing and Aaaahing. And then, even when your world is inevitably righted and returned to normal again, you still walk away with a sense of wonderment, pondering and reliving the experience. The closer to a magic act that your story is, the better chances you have for acceptance. Remember, a magician doesn't just create an act, they continue to work on it, to make it better. They show it to friends, to family, and to strangers to make sure it's interesting, to get feedback on where it might not be believable, on where it might fall apart. Then they fix it and perfect it, until finally, they're ready to show it off and wow their audience. And then the standing ovation on opening night makes all that hard work worthwhile!

Well, that's it! You've now officially met all of our wonderful guest judges! So, what's next? Well, the contest, of course! The details (including the wonderful prizes, of course!) will be up tonight, and the contest will start on Monday, November 1st. Excited? I am! So keep checking on the contest updates! Hope to see wonderful entries from you!

Meet the Judges - Robyn Harding

2010-10-26T12:08:00.000-07:00

Time to introduce our second guest judge, another fabulous published author. Please welcome Robyn Harding! Robyn is the author of six books, including The Journal of Mortifying Moments and her latest US release, Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis. She lives in Vancouver, Canada with her husband and two kids. To learn more about Robyn or to say hello, you can check her website. So let's hear more from Robyn, shall we?

Gabriela - I loved your guest post on the Guide to Literary Agents’ blog, Women's Fiction, Chick Lit, and Other Thoughts on Labels. What prompted you to write that?

Robyn - I recently sat on a panel about humor writing at a university here in Vancouver. I noticed that the male authors on the panel had numerous awards and accolades, while the female authors did not. I was asked to present a topic and I chose labeling in women’s fiction. Do labels like chick lit and mommy lit affect the critical acceptance of our work? The female members of the panel were very vocal and supportive. The male members didn’t have a lot to say.

G - In your post, you mention that “the chick lit label was hard to drop”. Have you been trying to drop it? Has the hostility towards chick lit changed your writing in any way?

R - No, I haven’t been trying to drop the chick lit label. But other than my first novel, “The Journal of Mortifying Moments”, my books don’t fit (what I consider to be) the chick lit profile: a single girl in the city comes into her own. Still, I’m frequently called a chick lit author. It seems the label has evolved to include all female writers who have a sense of humor in their work. But my writing hasn’t changed because of the chick lit backlash. I still tell stories that I find exciting and engaging. And my sense of humor still comes through in my writing.

G - On an article for the Telegraph entitled “Why is women’s fiction so miserable?", British writer Jojo Moyes says that women’s fiction isn’t taken seriously, especially the humorous kind. She mentions women are writing “serious” books because they’ve realized that “there are no literary credentials to be gained from writing upbeat prose. Current wisdom suggests you cannot be taken seriously if you include a happy ending, wit – or even in some notable cases – a plot”, and she concludes that “such fiction – with its humour, wit and affairs of the heart – is still not taken seriously, except by its legions of readers.” Do you agree with her? Are humorous books written by and for women overlooked? And do you feel a need to write about depressing issues to be taken seriously?

R - I do agree with Jojo. Critically, at least, humorous women’s fiction is often dismissed. And humor, in general, is never given the same consideration as drama. (When was the last time a comedy won the Oscar?) In Canada, where I live, the literary landscape is known to be deep, dark and downright depressing. I don’t fit into the scene here at all! But I simply can’t write about rape or incest or the death of a child. I’ve tried, on a few occasions, and it was torturous for me. I love writing stories that contain elements of drama and comedy. That, to me, is real life.

G - You have written books in different genres and for different age groups. Was there one that you considered easier to market?

R - I wrote a Young Adult book called “My Parents Are Sex Maniacs, A High School Horror Story.” It’s about a teenage girl forced to deal with her father’s infidelity with her best friend’s mother. It was a heavy issue, but tonally, it was similar to my other books. Maybe because this book was targeted at teens, it actually won some awards and got me invited to some writers’ festivals. It seems a light approach in teen fiction is more acceptable to critics and reviewers. I also wrote a fun, nonfiction book called “Mom, Will This Chicken Give Me Man Boobs?” about my struggle to raise my family in (arguably), the most environmentally aware neighborhood on the planet. The book got soooo much media attention in Canada. And in this case, the humor was really appreciated… except by hard core environmentalists. They wanted to lynch me.

"I love writing stories that contain elements of drama and comedy. That, to me, is real life."

G - What about your latest release, “Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis”? What is it about and what genre do you think it would fit into?

R - “Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis” is about the break up of a marriage, told from two perspectives: the husband’s and the wife’s. Lucy and Trent have been married for 16 years and have a 15 year-old daughter, when Trent suddenly realizes he’s not happy. Of course, this revelation devastates the family, but the crisis also prompts Lucy to have her own epiphany, and she begins a journey to find a new definition of happiness. Even though half the book is narrated by a man, my publishers definitely consider this book contemporary women’s fiction (judging by the pink bra on the cover). I agree that the book should be marketed to women, but unfortunately, this probably excludes male readers. (Not many men are secure enough to read a book with a pink bra on the cover on the bus.) I wonder how the novel would have been marketed if it had been written by a man? And how it would have been received?

G - How does “Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis” speak to women? What do you think will draw female readership to this book?

R - Women experience midlife crises just as much as men do – but in a very different way. A Time Magazine cover story explored this uniquely female experience. When women reach this turning point (often spurred on by a traumatic or life altering event) they’re not looking for excitement or adventure. They’re looking for meaning. I think a lot of women will relate to Lucy’s struggles to redefine her life. I also think female readers will enjoy getting inside a man’s head for a change. They can finally answer the question: What the hell was he thinking?

G - What has changed between your first novel, “The Journal of Mortifying Moments”, and your latest one? Do you think those changes have more to do with your own personal growth or with market demands?

R - My latest novel “Chronicles of a Midlife Crisis” is definitely more mature than “The Journal of Mortifying Moments”. The characters are almost a decade older, have a 16 year marriage and a teenage daughter. In “The Journal of Mortifying Moments”, my protagonist is single, with an on again off again boyfriend. “Chronicles…” is still very funny in a lot of places, but “Journal…” is an all out comedy. With “Chronicles…” I wanted to tell a dramatic story with some humorous moments. With “Journal…” I wanted to write a really funny novel that had dramatic elements. I think this shift was just a natural evolution in my writing – though it’s possible that I could have subconsciously been affected by the changing literary market.

G - Finally, what advice do you give to aspiring writers hoping to write women’s fiction?

R - I think you need to write what you love to write, and ignore the scuttlebutt about the marketplace. If you try to write what’s selling, you’ll probably miss the boat. By the time your manuscript is finished, something entirely different will be popular. Write the stories that you’ve got inside you, the stories that you need to tell. I think it shows when you’re writing from your heart.