Knowing what your genre is

Posted on by Kyra Nelson

I recently did a round of #tenqueries and noticed that almost half of the queries I looked at had incorrectly labelled their genre. In fact, several of them made up genres that didn’t even exist.

If you’re having trouble deciding how to label your book, I suggest looking at Lara’s post on genre. This post had me practically screaming “Amen!” several times. I’ll add just a few points, though.

First, I’ll say that sometimes it is difficult to pin down your genre. In fact, I happen to be guilty of writing books that defy clear genre categorization. I also love reading genre-bending books like Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky series (is it a fantasy, science fiction, romance, or dystopia? All of the above, I guess).

Comparative titles can help. I’m currently querying a book that takes place in a historical, made-up setting but includes no magical elements. I’ve talked to all sorts of people, trying to find out what to call that. Some suggested fantasy or non-magic fantasy. Others suggested alternate history or alternate world history. There was no agreement anywhere.

This left me in a predicament. However, I decided to use Jennifer Nielsen’s The False Prince and Marie Rutkoski’s The Winner’s Curse as comp titles. These books have similar settings to mine, which shows the agent reading the query that there is a market for these books and I know who my audience is. My comp titles helped me clarify what I meant when I said the book was an alternate history.

Second, you should be careful not to make up your own genre. I get a lot of people pitching their book as “fairy tale-retelling.” That’s not a genre. Fairy tale retellings can fall into any number of genres. For instance, Cinder, Damsel Distressed, and Princess of Glass are all YA Cinderella retellings. But they cover SciFi, Contemporary, and Fantasy respectively.

YA fairy tale
These books are all YA fairy tale retellings. They are not all the same genre.

One final point before I wrap up. YA is not a genre. MG is not a genre. Those are audiences. When writing a query, you should specify your genre and category. For example, a YA historical fiction or MG fantasy. Leaving off one or the other will make it sound like you don’t understand your market.

If you’re still feeling a little lost, check out this genre map from Book Country.

I am now the proud owner of a shiny, new writing group

Posted on by kaleighwalter

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Last month, I co-created a writing group.

Two friends from my college writing program and I all voiced a mutual desire to receive feedback on projects we’ve been working on post-degrees (albeit, very intermittently post-degrees). While we deeply enjoy one another’s company—oh, how good it is to discuss books and writing and poetry again!—we’re a hodgepodge group of sorts. Well, that is, our projects are all very different.

For me, last year I began the tumultuously slow process of writing a young adult novel, and I wanted someone else to read the pages and point out glaring character development issues, plot inaccuracies, etc. Another friend is working on a historical fiction novel set during WWII, and the other is working on her poetry collection. Again, it’s quite the variety. And while I’m certainly no poetry expert, and they don’t often read YA fiction, I’ve already found their feedback to be immensely helpful.

(For the most part) outsiders of the YA world, their fresh perspective is revitalizing. They’ve only read the first three chapters and already I can see that I’ve got some work to do, and I’m excited to revise. And while, in my opinion, these outcomes alone immensely validate our meetings, this is not the sole reason why I added one more thing to my already full calendar.

I committed to my writing group—and the other members agree with me—for a sense of accountability to create new material.

Perhaps you’re not like us. Perhaps you have excess pockets of time and energy left in your day to create. And if that is you, kudos. But that is not us. We are busy. Our lives are filled with work, relationships, social activities, errands, working out (or, you know, thinking about working out), and the list could go on for a thousand years.

A while back, I wrote a blog post about making time to write. I was so optimistic that I could commit to it and make it work. And I was so wrong. But a writing group has clout. And I’m excited to try this out. I’m excited to see what I can create and excited to help others create.

So, want to be a part of a writing group? I have no fancy Internet tips on how to connect with other writers in your area. In fact, I have very little advice about this. I knew a plethora of writers and desired to do this for years before it finally happened.

But, you don’t have to know a lot of writers to get great feedback on your work. Ask anyone in your network: friends, family, former teachers, librarians, avid readers. But really, readers love to let you know what they liked and what they didn’t. Before you know it, you’ll be swimming in feedback.

And if that doesn’t work? Well then, there are always editors!

9 Practical Tricks for Writing Your First Novel

Posted on by Lara

Jan Ellison shared a brilliant post yesterday. Click here to read the post on Writer’s Digest.

VB jan ellison

I definitely agree with #3, the work, break cycle. When I’m editing, I do my best work when I work for 40 minutes at a time. The breaks fluctuate, and I only take a break if I need to. I allow myself to jump straight into another 40-minute sprint if I’m feeling motivated!

I also agree with #8. Shannon Hale once compared writing the first draft as shoveling sand into a sand box. It’s messy, takes time, and isn’t very pretty. The next draft is when you start building sand castles.

And #9, too! I had a dozen beta readers for my first novel. Half of them loved one of my POV characters, the other half hated her. Reading is subjective!

Which of Jan’s nine tricks is your favorite? How will you implement these tips in your writing this week?

Writing Like an Entrepreneur: Learning From the Founder of TOMS Shoes

Posted on by Megan

This past week I tagged along to my husband’s company-wide annual meeting, expecting a lot of alone hotel time, some coffee shop stops and few ‘mandatory fun’ events. But this year had some pleasant surprises in store.

The very first meeting, Blake Mycoskie, the founder of TOMS shoes, walked onto the stage! (At this point you’re probably wondering what this story has to do with writing at all. Patience, my friend.)
blake

Writing like an entrepreneur

Of course, his story of TOMS was inspirational, funny and tear jerking. But very quickly I began to realize that what he learned as an entrepreneur could be easily applied to the writing life as well.

Entrepreneurship and writing both share many themes. Both involve ideation, inspiration, and a lot of hard work. The following ideas are concepts that Blake shared and that I want to pass forward. I hope they bring you the focus and inspiration they’ve already brought me.

Give ideas a chance

When Blake birthed the idea of TOMS shoes, he had just finished a day of delivering shoes to kids in Argentina. To him, it was just a thought about how to keep kids in shoes and, ultimately, in school. But the next day when he shared it with an Argentinean friend, the friend was ecstatic. This friend’s passion and belief in the idea began to rub off on Blake, and before he knew it, they were making shoes out of a couple Argentinean garages. 

The point: Give your ideas a chance. If a book, story or character comes to you in the wee morning hours, or while sitting at your desk at work, run it by a friend and see what they think. You might be surprised how quickly your idea can take shape if you just give it a chance.

Practical tip: Start an idea notebook. Make sure it’s small enough to carry with you, so as ideas come you can jot them down.

Learn from your critics

As TOMS began to take off, it wasn’t long before the very public criticism came. At first, Blake was angry. Couldn’t they see how many people he was helping? Then, he ignored them. Finally, he decided to listen. He invited some of his critics into his office to really hear them out. What he soon realized was that some of their critiques were actually true. Even though he didn’t like the way they went about it, he was able to learn from the critics and improve his business-model.

The point: Maybe you won’t always like how someone criticizes you, but that doesn’t me what they say doesn’t hold value. Do your best to evaluate what you can implement to improve your manuscript.

Practical tip: Check out Kyra’s post on getting the most out of your critique! 

Use the experts

Blake was the first to admit that he wasn’t exactly shoe-savvy. So when things began to take off, he knew he needed to hire some experts in the field. He quickly hired a few people with previous experience at some of the largest shoe distributors. Later, when his people said it was time to diversify his shoe inventory, he listened. TOMS continued to explode.

The point: If you’re having trouble getting your MS off the ground, it’s probably because you’re in need of some expert insight. Find experienced editors, query experts, and agents to help you along the way. There’s no shame in getting help, and it’s pretty unrealistic to think you can do it all on your own.

Practical tip: Start with (non-friend) beta readers, then get yourself an editor and go from there.

What’s your next step?

Now that you’ve learned from Blake, what is your next step? Do you simply need to jot down some ideas? Do you need to re-visit criticism or pursue an editor? Whatever the case, I hope you give your MS a chance and start to write like an entrepreneur!