BookingIt

A real-life vent from a dear friend of mine on the perils of "jumping into bed" with an agent. Thank you for sharing your story, Anonymous Guest. :-) First, I’d like to thank my gracious blog host, Jessica, for letting me post this. It’s been therapeutic to vent in a “public” venue. As for jumping into bed with an agent, I’m someone who’s in that bed right now, trying to decide whether to "suck it up” or toss the covers aside and find another mate. It’s so easy to say: I’m going to research every agent inside and out, read their every blog entry and online interview, talk to their other clients, and ask all the right questions to turn down any agent who answers even one of them wrong. That still doesn’t mean the marriage will be perfect. Even more than knowing your agent (which is virtually impossible until you start working with them anyway), is know your own career path. That’s the only way to assure the partnership will be successful. I’d been trying to get an agent ...

Sometimes we hop into bed with an agent before thinking things through. Passion kicks in and oops, we're in "bed" with a stranger. Just because an agent is reputable and nice doesn't mean they'll be the right fit. If you don't ask the right questions you might jump in with someone who: Hogs the covers. Takes up all the room on the mattress. Huddles on the edge of mattress and you can barely reach him. Snores in the middle of pillowtalk. Have you thought about what to ask an agent before accepting an offer of representation? What things are you willing to overlook and what qualities are important to you?

I knew someone whose manuscript was rejected because of uneven pacing. It was the first time I'd heard of such a thing, and boy did it scare me. Thinking about pacing, for me, is like thinking about calculus or trying to get home from the Orlando airport. I get lost. Easily. Frequently. But I've managed to glean a few tidbits about pacing from different places (and since it's been a while I don't know who to thank--sorry!). 1. Pacing should slow when there's tension. I take that to mean we want the moment to stretch out wire-taut. 2. Pacing can be linked to conflict issues . So if your middle is sagging, your pacing might be off. 3. Pacing is the rhythm of the novel. Check out this excellent article by bestselling author Vicki Hinze. What have you heard about pacing? How's the pacing in your manuscript? Your life? *grin* Any good advice to share?

Thank You Jeanette! Thank You Steph in the City ! Here's a cute video I found over at Miss Snark's First Victim . It's an advertisement for Authoress's Book Agent Demystified, but I still thought it was really funny and kind of true. At least for the beginning of most of our writing journeys. Have a great weekend!

I strongly believe in sowing and reaping. Some people might believe in karma, some in 'what goes around, comes around.' The basic principle here is that everything has consequences. I just loved a recent episode of House because it was about sowing and reaping. Balance, even. The dad sacrificed everything to save his son, and being the wonderful show it is, the son lived. Not only that, but the minor characters have made some choices that are now beginning to bear fruit (and add conflict). Consequences. Are you making sure your characters are suffering from their bad choices? Being rewarded for their good ones? It's the little choices at the beginning of the story that should affect the rest of the book. I think these seemingly inconsequential choices should weave together and create the plot. What do you think about sowing and reaping? Is your MC making good choices or bad ones, and how does that affect your character's moral arc?

As I was cleaning my bathrooms yesterday, it struck me how thankul I am that I no longer have to use my hands to clean the toilet bowl. I remembered how as a kid I hated sticking my fingers into that cold, nasty water. But now I have my trusty toilet brush. Swish, swish and I'm done. No mess, little effort. Thanks to computers, writing is easier too. No more whiteout in the typewriter, just a beautiful delete button. Then there's control F. And most recently I discovered page breaks. I'm sure there's lots of other cool tools. What's your favorite word processing tool? House-cleaning tool? What do you wish would be invented?

On my last post Deb mentioned wanting to hear about the good stuff from the conference. So here we go: 1) Amazing networking. I met many of my blogger friends, plus new bloggers. 2) I met my wonderful and generous crit partner. Also roomed with her, which was awesome. 3) Books, books, and more books. They gave away a whole bunch too! 4) Seeing editors and agents and realizing many of them are my age. Kind of a funky feeling there, but good. 5) Delicious desserts 6) Tree Climbing 7) Being surrounded by other writers is one of the biggest supports I've ever felt. It's incredible. So that's the good stuff from the conference. There's so much more I could write about, but others have covered it better than me. The links below are for fellow bloggers who did more detail on various aspects of the conference. Katie's Post Jody's Post Krista's Post .html">Eileen's Post Jeannie's Post Any links you all want to add?