· writing

Writing: How It Works (Or At Least What I Know) Part II

December 5, 2009 in publishing, writers, writing | 1 comment

So this is Part Two in a series of posts detailing what I’ve learned about writing and publishing over the past three -ish years on my road to finishing my novel and working with an agent and eventually trying to get published. For Part One, go here, and make sure to read about how I’m totally not an expert and check out all the helpful links that can educate FAR more than I can.

With that out of the way, I’m going to tell you my story, for my novel and what my experience has been. That doesn’t mean it’s everyone’s experience, or that you should expect it to go similarly for you, but it might at least be helpful in reading about how the process has been working for me. This installment is primarily about AGENTS.

I finished the first totally complete draft of my novel in January of 2007. I had been working on it (among other projects) off and on (and while working full time – and picking up my life and moving from Los Angeles to New York) since sometime in late 2004. Many people can do it faster than that. I hope my next one will come faster but that’s how long it took me to get my first novel to “the end”. And to top everything off this draft was short to boot. Clocking in at only 55k words, a length that is “technically” too short for most fiction, even YA (young adult), but there it was. Complete.

So I started the process of having a few people read it. As this was my first time finishing a novel I didn’t have any beta readers. A beta reader can be defined I suppose as someone that doesn’t have a personal investment in you (like your boyfriend, best friend, parents, siblings, etc.) and it’s usually somebody that is also either a writer or an editor, or at a minimum a voracious reader. Though I find you’re better off with the former as their notes tend to be more focused and the critique more intensive. So though I didn’t have beta readers technically, I did have some amazing people in my life that were writers and artists that I hoped would be able to separate their affection for me from their ability to constructively critique the manuscript. This sort of worked and after getting feedback from three or four friends I embarked on revisions.

I finished the revisions in April of 2007 and sat on the new manuscript for nearly four months.

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She Has No Head! – The Boob Window That Just Won’t Die

November 30, 2009 in blogging, comics, comics should be good, CSBG, writing | 7 comments

Check out my new column up at CSBG. Thanks!

New Column Up At CSBG

November 23, 2009 in blogging, comic reviews, comics, comics should be good, CSBG, feminist rage, feminist rants, writing | Permalink

My new column is up at CSBG, check it out if you get a chance. It’s a bit of a rant…so I’m trying to prepare myself for the inevitable hate mail…man, I’m so bad at hate mail…why doesn’t everyone just agree with me and be nice all the time?

TV – The Midterm Report

November 20, 2009 in best shows you're not watching, blogging, television, television reviews, writing | Permalink

My article giving out midterm grades to all the shows I planned to watch this fall is up at Best Shows You’re Not Watching.

So…About My Novel…

November 19, 2009 in art, cartoons, comics, the jilted league, the novel, writing | 8 comments

The Jilted League aka The Bimbo, The Bitch, and The Brain aka Olympia, Dina, and Val. Click to enbiggen! Words and Art by Kelly Thompson. Colors by Adam Greene. Thanks Adam!

Well, so much for that. I sent the ladies to deliver a message and as usual it’s lost in a sea of bitching and moaning. I hope they’re better superheroes than messengers…time will tell.

So here’s what’s going on with my novel, for those of you who have been asking (you precious but devoted few!). As some of you already know, I got an offer from an incredibly talented and powerful agent to work exclusively on the revisions to my novel with him. This essentially means we have both put in considerable time and effort on my book and are both hoping to work together, but we have not signed a contract. So officially, I’m working exclusively on revisions to my novel with this agent, but technically I do not yet have an agent. But don’t worry, this is not so uncommon as it sounds.

Anyway, sometime last June the agent and I came to this exclusivity arrangement at which point I began the painful process of waiting for his revision notes. They arrived in early August and I got to work quickly after they arrived. The notes were excellent – but much larger in scope than I had expected. I (finally) finished the revisions (which included cutting about 60 existing pages and adding 130 new pages) at the end of October. Upon finishing the revision I sent the notes back to the agent to get his feedback, at the same time I sent the revised manuscript to my writing group for a critique.

I have not yet heard back from the agent, though I hope to soon, but Wednesday night I got a very in depth crit from my writing group on the new draft. Now, I must tell you, it’s pretty scary to wait for a crit like that. You’ve been pounding away on your keyboard all alone in a room writing 130 new pages that could be brilliant or could be the worst dreck you’ve ever written, and while it seems like it should be obvious which it is, I have to admit that I am wildly inconsistent in how I feel about my work. I can write an amazing scene before lunch, pat myself on the back as if I’m a genius, go make a sandwich, come back in half an hour, look at the same scene and proclaim myself King of Hacks…the hackiest hacky hack to ever live. It’s quite a sight. So suffice to say, I really had no barometer about how those new 130 pages were working. Some days I felt pretty good about them, some days…not so much. And since not a single soul in all the world had read them yet…I was pretty anxious to hear what the group thought.

Overall, they really liked the new draft and the change in plot and arc (130 new pages – that’s definitely some changes). There were problems of course (there always are) and I haven’t yet had a chance to go through all four manuscripts to see their individual page to page notes (which can sometimes be a blow to the ego), but the response was overwhelmingly good…much better than I had expected. So I’m really happy today. And really grateful to have such a wonderful group of writers that are supportive and critical. Joining a writing group was hands down the best thing I’ve ever done for my writing.

So what does all this mean? It means that I’m not crazy (yay!) and that hopefully the agent I’m working with will feel similarly about the manuscript as my writing group did. I have no doubt that more revisions will still be needed (not to mention a strong edit – the ms is coming in at a bloated 419 pages right now) but hopefully the agent will be on board for the new direction…and sometime…sometime!…in the relatively near future we can sign a contract and get this book out on submission to publishers. So everyone, please continue to keep your fingers crossed – I know it’s already been about six months – but if you can hang on for three or four more I’d really appreciate it – and hopefully this thing will really get to go somewhere…and if I’m lucky…take me with it.

Thanks for all of your support…and know that by “support” I mean agreeing to buy at least 500 copies of the book each when it finally (hopefully!) sees publication.

*Oh – and click here if you want to know “what happened LAST time” according to Dina in panel two.

Writing: How It Works (Or At Least What I Know) Part I

November 18, 2009 in books, writers, writing | 1 comment

I don’t post a lot on this blog about writing – save a few random comments about what’s going on with my novel and my “rejection status updates” I have deliberately tried to avoid making this a blog about writing. I think I’ve stayed away from this for two main reasons.

#1. I tend to find most blogs about writing a little the same and dull and I doubt I have much unique to add to the discussion.

#2. Many people who know WAY more than me already do it MUCH better.

Super secret reason #3 is that most of the time I’d just rather rant about comics.

All that said, something happened a few weeks ago that made me want to do a post about writing – specifically a post about what I’ve learned over the past three(ish) years about publishing and agents and “how it all works”. As I started writing it turned into a four part post, focusing on different aspects of publishing. This is PART ONE and it’s about SCAMS.

Please keep in mind while reading this that there are still innumerable things I have yet to learn. By most standards I’m still a rookie. If you have a manuscript and are trying to get an agent, or want to be a writer, or want to educate yourself about scams, or just want to learn more about publishing I’d suggest checking out any and all of the following:

Absolute Write, The Rejecter, Duotrope, Writer Beware, Miss Snark, and Pub Rants

Oookay. All of that out of the way. A friend of mine that has a solid childrens book manuscript almost got scammed the other day…which is what prompted the idea for this first post. Now, the person that “scammed” her was actually much more upfront than most in that he acknowledged that there would be money involved in getting her published. This is usually called Vanity or Subsidy publishing. While this gentlemen appeared to be more honest than your average scammer, he still largely presented himself as a “legitimate publisher” that would “love to see her work”, when in fact, if you are paying money you are either self publishing or vanity publishing or getting scammed (the latter two often going hand in hand). My friend, like many honest hardworking writers, jumped at the opportunity and sent him her manuscript. When talking about it with her I heard her mention paying money and I had to slam the breaks on her excitement.

A legitimate publisher never asks you for a penny. NEVER. The publisher pays you. You do not pay the publisher. In fact, as a writer, you pay for nothing (except perhaps postage to send your ms to agents or publishers when you are seeking one if you choose to go the snail mail route). You do not pay agents. You do not pay reading fees. You do not pay editors. You do not pay for a “web page” to help “market” your book. As a writer YOU. DO. NOT. PAY. EVER.

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First CSBG Column Is Up!

November 16, 2009 in blogging, comics, comics should be good, CSBG, writing | 4 comments

Please head on over to CBR’s Comics Should Be Good to read my first CSBG post. Thanks for the support everyone!

~ Kelly

Huge Awesome Announcement

November 11, 2009 in blogging, comic reviews, comics, comics should be good, CSBG, writing | 7 comments

Hello fans of 1979 Semi-Finalist…and by extension…ME!

I got an amazing offer last week from Brian Cronin over at CBR’s Comics Should Be Good to start contributing to their fantastic and wildly popular blog. I, of course giddily accepted, and so I’m going to be doing a regular column called ‘She Has No Head!’. The column will run on Mondays and will discuss the fairly broad topic of ‘women in comics’ – ranging from real world women creators to female characters and beyond.

I’ll let everyone know when the first post goes up – but in the meantime – check out the awesome announcement Brian put up – and the Comics Should Be Good blog in general – which is fantastic with or without a column from little ole me.

Thanks for all the support everyone – I hope I can do it justice!

Kelly

Rejection Phase III Update

October 23, 2009 in rejection, short fiction, short fiction rejections, short fiction submissions, writing | 4 comments

I got another two short fiction rejections over the last couple months, so I felt compelled to update. The funny thing is that one was from a really major literary magazine that I’d love to get into, and one was from a pretty small zine (that I’d still love to get into), but you’d think the major publication would hurt more, but it’s really the other way around. You know if The New Yorker (not who I submitted to by the way) rejects you it’s easy to blow off, it’s like “well duh, they’re The NEW YORKER, of course they don’t want little ole me.” But the little magazine? C’MON!

Anyway, I’ll be honest it’s pretty frustrating to get short fiction rejections while working on agent revisions for my book. It really undermines my confidence level. So um, I’m just going to pretend this didn’t happen. Nothing to see here folks…carry on…

Updated Stats: 10 out of 11 Rejected, 1 still out. Bah.

The Venture Brothers: Season One

October 15, 2009 in adult swim, animation, awesomeness, best shows you're not watching, blogging, cartoon network, cartoons, the venture brothers, writing | Permalink

I’ve got a post about The Venture Brothers Season One up at The Best Shows You’re Not Watching, in honor of the upcoming season premiere on Sunday October 18th. Head on over and check it out. As always, comments on the Best Shows site are always welcome – thanks!

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