#PitchMadness

#PitchMadness is a contest run by the fantastic/wonderful/hard-working/must-be-crazy Brenda Drake. You can read a great deal more about it on her blog. The contest submission window opened at 6am this morning and closed at noon. Here's the thing, a bunch of my favourite people in the Twitter Writing Community are involved, either as Blog Hosts and Slush Zombies, or Agents (4 of my Top 10 list of agents are involved!!!).

After some prodding from my friends in the community I made the jump and entered. The time of my submission? 6:05am. No, I didn't get up that early just to submit (there was no cut-off, and after 11am is more my style), I was up for a hockey tournament.

Even if I don't make it to round 2, this is an experience, and I'm meeting a fair number of new people at a similar stage in their writing aspirations. So it's a win no matter what happens.

The submission requirements were: A pitch of no more than 35 words (which is a LOT harder than you think, YOU try summarizing your favourite book in 35 words or less while sounding original AND grabbing attention), and an excerpt of the first 250 words.

Here's my submission:

Title: CROW’S BLOOD

Genre: YA Fantasy

Word Count: 100,000

Pitch:

Flynn, a talented young thief, is the prime suspect in a series of grisly ritual murders. He’s also the kingdom’s best chance to find the real killer. He’ll just need to pull one last heist.

Excerpt: 

A sharp crack broke the silence of the cavernous Inner Sanctum of the Praetorian Order, echoing off the vaulted ceiling and the stained glass dome at its centre. A small segment disappeared from the scene depicting the Goddess, her four Scions, and her Adversary. Pale moonlight, mostly from the Other, the brighter of the two moons at that hour, struck downwards to light a small circle on the mosaic near the centre of the floor in the great library. The larger moon, Ambrosia, having just crested the horizon, wasn’t bright enough to lend its pink hue.

The black rope uncoiled down the shaft of moonlight with a soft whisper. Flynn vaulted into the gap, and dropped along the rope’s length, matching the speed of its fall. He grabbed on to slow himself only at the last instant, and touched down soundlessly.

Looking back up at the hole in the stained glass, he could make out the silhouette of his mentor, Martin, framed against the glowing white spectre of the Other. He couldn’t make out any of Martin’s features, backlit as he was. Flynn knew there would be a scowl set deep in the older man’s lined face. Martin worried too much.

Crouched in the centre of the great library, Flynn turned in a slow circle to get his bearings. He mentally compared the layout with the map he’d memorized in the days before. Spotting one of his landmarks, he set off into the concentric rows of heavily laden bookshelves. 

Long years of practice meant the only sound Flynn made was the faint ripple of the air past his close fitting, mottled-grey outfit. 

Revision Update and Agent Fears

Here I am, hip deep in my out loud revision pass and getting on to some much cleaner chapters. There are a number of pitch contests and (self-imposed) deadlines coming up this month that I hope to have CROW'S BLOOD ready for. I'm still on schedule for my goal of querying agents by the end of the month.

I'm going to update the progress bar on the right to reflect how far through this pass I am. It'll be a rough estimate, but it'll do.

Querying is something that absolutely terrifies me. I find the whole idea somewhat paralyzing.

The problem stems from Twitter. You see, I started tracking Agents down via Twitter (which is an awesome resource for writers to get to know other people in the industry) and following them.

In the course of following them I've connected with quite a few. Some to the point where I greatly value their connection beyond an Aspiring Writer<=>Agent connection. Those connections have gone on to the point where I'd like to hang out with these people even if they weren't a potential resource for my writing career.

Our personalities seem to mesh, and damn it, I like their style! It also helps that they're all great at their jobs and know what they're doing enough to freely give help to the community. It's because I like these people and value them so much, they're exactly the agents I want to query. They're people I think I can work with.

That's where the problem comes in.  I'm afraid to query them! What if they don't like what I send them? What if they find out I'm a hack who takes 5 revisions before his story even resembles a cohesive mess? What if they don't like me any more? How will I face them on Twitter or at Cons if I reveal so much of myself to them through my writing? What if I, in all my awesome horribleness, am the "writer" that makes them close their "please submit your next work" door, or even quit Agenting (I know it's not a word!) altogether?

I picture cabals of agents I adore getting together for a good maniacal laugh over a brandy in a NYC bar while scribbling all over my book in red marker.

ARGH!!!

Breathe damn it.

I've considered only submitting to contests, which, while entertaining, and a great way to meet other writers and agents, still doesn't necessarily get me working with the agents on my top 10 list (yes, I have one).  I've actually considered querying agents I don't know... Just so I won't potentially damage the pseudo-relationships I have with the agents I like... How broken is that?

The other pitfall of this neuroses I'm developing is endless revision. When will I ever consider something "good enough" to send to the agents I like? How do I let go? What if I let go too soon?

To you other writers that read my ramblings, have you gone through the same things? I sometimes wish I'd started writing before the internet made connecting with people so far away so easy.

Critique Partner Adventures of the Nitpickasaurus

I've been looking for a Critique Partner as I do my Out Loud Revision pass, using CPSeek.com and Twitter. Both have brought me results of a sort.

There have been a few Critique Partners that I've exchanged chapters with (usually the first 3), and I've done my best to be fair and honest while critiquing their work. I'm always afraid I'll come off as a jerk or some sort of Nitpickasaurus. Given the evidence, my specific critique style is most definitely NOT for everyone.

I'm ok with that, as long as everyone who lets me see their stuff realizes I'm critiquing the WORK and NOT them. It's a hard separation to make as a writer, as our work is so much of us laid bare. It's our time, effort, love/hate/happiness/anger/lust, and a bit of our soul on those pages.

The key, I find, is to always keep the goal of critiquing firmly in mind, both when going over someone else's work, or reading their notes on your own. That goal is to help the writer become better at the craft, and to help them make that manuscript the absolute awesomest it can possibly be. I'll throw in the odd bit of "best practices" I've picked up from others in an effort to help on some of the pain points. There are some really helpful people out there doing podcasts and articles, etc. I'll link a few at the bottom of the post.

With that in mind, I try my hardest to give a critique without stepping on a writer's voice or style. It's not my business to tell someone what to write, or even how to write. I just try to tell them where what they've written doesn't work for me, isn't clear, or doesn't flow well. I may even catch the odd bit of problem grammar or spelling (though not as often as I probably should).

Well, whether I am a jerk, or a Nitpickasaurus, or some other hell-spawn made flesh to torment other writers, I've found at least one CP who doesn't run screaming for holy water at my mark-up notes on their work!

Colten Hibbs, say hello to my thousands (x .001) of blog readers! Colton has a wonderful writing voice and a good sense of character, and I look forward to both of us helping the other develop as writers.

I have a few other CPs lined up for when they're ready, and I'm really looking forward to seeing their stuff too. I'm still quite nervous about letting others see my work, but that's part of the deal. I still have an awful lot to learn.

- Alex

Links!

• Write About Dragons Youtube Channel: A fantastic video log of Brandon Sanderson's classes at BYU
• Writing Excuses: A ~15 minute/episode podcast all about writing with Brandon Sanderson, Dan Wells, Howard Tayler, and Mary Robinette-Kowal
• I Should be Writing: Mur Lafferty's podcast that has launched so many others. It's the longest running writing podcast for a good reason.
• Dead Robots Society: Funny, informative, rambling, and a little bit blue from time to time, but a good resource for interviews and lengthy discussions on writing topics.
• The Roundtable Podcast: Their "20 Minutes With" sessions are invaluable insight into different Authors and their processes, and their Workshops often give real-world implementations of those processes.
• Wordplay: A wonderful series of videos and transcripts discussing just about every writing topic imaginable
• Nat Russo's Blog: Where Nat Russo does a great job explaining just about everything.
• The Daily Dahlia: Home of Dahlia Adler and where she shares her endless wisdom. 

There are many more out there if you look around (and several other people's blogs that I follow) that I haven't listed here.