Deborah's Journal

Author and former literary agent Nathan Bransford presents another in his series of page critiques. Much of this is a matter of personal preference, but it is fascinating to read his thought process -- what he notices and how he suggests fixing it.

He says,
This is definitely a competently written first page. It sets the scene, it's not difficult to place the action, and it doesn't try too hard to grab the reader by the throat, which is very appreciated. There are some turns of phrase that could perhaps be smoother, but

My main concern is with the action, which I almost missed.

What's interesting about writing action is that there are many different ways to convey it stylistically. You can do clipped phrases (e.g. "He saw blood. Red everywhere. He ran. The killer was close.) or you could do stream of consciousness (e.g. "He saw blood and there was red everywhere and he ran, heart pounding, sensing the killer was close."), you can do a mix.

http://blog.nathanbransford.com/2014/04/page-critique-wednesday-and-importance.html

This seems to be the season for great author interviews - yesterday desperance and today, dancinghorse:

Author Interview Special Edition – Judith Tarr, American Fantasy Writer | Ideas Captured

She says: Write what’s in your heart to write. Don’t try to write to market, or let anyone else dictate what you write. Of course you will listen to input at the revision stage, but when you decide on a subject–that should be all you.

Ah, balm to the heart of any writer struggling which all the howls and shrieks about "the market" and how to play that game - that drown out that precious inner voice.

This leads me to a moment of appreciation for my agent. Judith says she used to run ideas by hers and get advice/feedback on where the market was likely to go. Certainly, that's a common and accepted discussion. Agents must feel a great deal of frustration when they love an author's work and can't find a home for it in traditional publishing. But it's not a conversation I typically have with mine. I don't know if that's because of how this particular agent works, or our own history, or that I have not had occasion to ask (in the last decade, when I've been focusing on the Darkover series).

I just turned in my original epic fantasy - The Seven-Petaled Shield, all 3 books of it, completing the first round of editorial revisions - and opened a conversation about where to go from here. Whether to stay within this subgenre or branch out into something I haven't tried. We talked about the risks of writing more books in a given world or type of story when we won't know how well the first books do for some time (although that information is easier to come by now than years ago, when you had to wait through several royalty statement periods). Here's what he said:

"... the fact is that this what you are best at, what you love to do, and you have a rich world crying out to be further developed. Trying to write in other fields, genres, and formats which you aren't committed to deep down is probably not going to result in a book we can sell."

In other words, he gave me Judy's advice: write from your heart and passion.

One of the blogs I follow is Book Ends, LLC. Today's posting is by Jessica Faust's client, author Kate Douglas. I almost fell over laughing when I read:

I’ve made no secret of the fact it took me forever to get my first New York contract. Even after I signed with Jessica, the running joke was that the best thing about having an agent was the fact she could get me rejected a whole lot faster than when I was submitting on my own. I was used to waiting a year—Jessica was getting rejections within weeks!

Luckily, I discovered I’d signed with an agent every bit as stubborn and hard-headed as I am, and eventually she got the right manuscript in front of the right editor at the right time.

The rest of the article is here.