A Dose of Vitamin E (for Emma)

What a great weekend! The Route 19 Writers invited Emma Dryden of DrydenBks to come work with us and critique our work. And boy, did she! In this and future blogs, we’ll share some of what we learned from Emma. But first we want to share some pictures and give you an idea of how much info, fun and food 11 writers and one editor can cram into a weekend.

 

This is Emma. In every single picture taken of Emma, she’s talking with her hands. Cynthia does that, too. Wonder what that means  . . .

 

We gathered on Friday night at Judy’s house for a salmon dinner, conversation and the first critiques. Emma reviewed the synopsis and first 10 pages for two novels, both YA contemporaries. While we are a darn good writers group that provides supportive, constructive but kind criticism for each other, it was so helpful to have a seasoned pro arrive and nudge us to work harder and smarter.

Emma has edited nearly five-hundred books for children and young readers. She understands the challenges of writers who want to create great, compelling books for children and young adults. But before a writer can reach an audience, she/he has to get published. Emma helped us step back and ask ourselves some basic questions – who is your audience for this book? Do toddlers want to see a book with a little baby main character or do they prefer to see toddlers like themselves? Or if your characters are graduating from high school you'll be losing some of the YA high school audience and venturing into NA (new adult). Is that who you want to reach? 

Basic writer/craft topics were also addressed. Even though our group boasts published authors and fairly advanced writing, Emma informed us that we were missing the mark on synopsis writing. Oops!

E Tip #1: A synopsis is not a pitch, a tease or an outline – it’s meant to communicate your main character’s emotional journey – their want – and major plot points. Don’t just jam in a bunch of details about time and place. And you can’t forget to put the category (picture book, YA fantasy) and word count in the upper right hand corner.

 

On Saturday, Miss Kitty hosted all of us at her house. She read us a book to get us in the right mood. We had a fab lunch after a morning of reviews. We finished up crits in the late afternoon despite bombarding Emma with questions all day. One of our poets is considering getting into self-publishing so Emma pointed out pros and cons about that route vs. traditional publishing.

 

Coriander kept Emma’s seat toasty whenever Emma got out of her seat. That’s western Pennsylvania hospitality.

 

This is Miss Kitty capturing the ever present Stinkbugs that plague western Pennsylvania. They're an odd little bug – harmless, stinky if squashed. Maybe they're writing little stinkbug novels and wanted some tips from Emma, too. Emma assured us that New York has bugs, too. They have cockroaches. Which makes stinkbugs seem sort of okay.

We ended the day over glasses of wine and hanging out at the kitchen table. Having Emma there chatting about the market and social networking do’s and don’ts felt totally comfortable. It felt like all of us had made a great new friend.

E Tip #2: Quit stalling. Get a website. Get a Facebook. Follow Tweets from your favorite agents. It’s called social networking for a reason - be social and network!

Thanks for a great weekend, Emma.

 

If your writers group is ready to get nudged to the next level and would like to talk to Emma for a dose of Vitamin E, she can be reached through her website .

 by Jenny Ramaley

 

Advice For Writers From a Seventh-Grader: No Boring Parts

Guest blogger: Grace Brown 

I love The Maze Runner by James Dashner. It’s one of my favorite books, right up there with The Hunger Games. But I almost didn’t keep reading it, because the first part was boring.

I liked the VERY beginning because it didn’t start off with the main character, Thomas, in his normal everyday life.  It started right in the dystopian world, a maze.  Right after the very beginning, though, it slowed down while the author set up a lot of details, which I didn’t like as much. From the time Thomas came out of the box (p. 3) until the girl shows up (p. 58), it felt slow. I’m not even sure why it felt slow; maybe because even though some things were happening, and I was learning things about the maze and the other kids, Thomas wasn’t really DOING anything.

So why did I keep reading? I was in a competition with a friend for who would finish first. I’m glad I kept reading, because it’s one of my favorite books, but I’m not sure I would have otherwise.  I probably would have, because it’s on a list of books that people might like if they liked The Hunger Games.

I’m not sure that I’ll change my habits and continue reading something even if it feels slow. Maybe, maybe not. I’m not crazy about reading the boring parts.      

So don’t write boring parts.  

Note by Grace's mother, Cynthia: I just about fell off my chair when Grace said the reason she kept reading The Maze Runner. For my part, I didn't find the beginning of The Maze Runner  boring at all. But compared to the latter two-thirds of the book, it is somewhat "slower." It is a wake-up call to me that 7th-graders have a different perspective from adults, and I need to continually be reminded of that. Certainly, many kids like things slowed down a bit, but many want things to move very quickly. 

Grace and I were talking about types of books (she prefers dystopias and fantasy), and I mentioned realistic fiction. I love this quote by her:

"Ugh. Realistic fiction. That's like those books they shove on you at school."

No doubt, a 12-year-old will tell it like they see it.