First Novels: When to hold and when to fold?

I wrote my first novel over a two year period, much of it in long hand. When I finished it I felt a sense of satisfaction…..and dread. Was it any good? And, would I ever have an idea for another book?

Between a demanding teaching job, commuting by bicycle year-round, getting into long distance running, and the rest of life, like most people, many hours of my day were spoken for before I could sit down to write.

Okay, I got another idea and then another, and then another. Over a three-year period and I wrote three more books and revised and revised and revised.

Then, I came back to that first novel and I rewrote it. Why did I pick it back up? I guess I really loved the premise.

The story changed from a third person YA novel to a first person MG novel. And that’s the novel that took second place in the PNWA Annual Contest.

When I set my first novel aside I didn’t know that I’d come back to it three years later. I didn’t know I’d devote six months to a total rewrite that took the book through several more drafts.

During the process did I ever think I was wasting my time? 

Yeah, that happened almost daily. And, where will the story go from here? I’m not sure….

Where is your first novel? Published? Under your bed? Still working on it? At rest in the little-visited catacombs of your hard drive? Have you considered revisiting it? How do you decide if something is worth rewriting as opposed to moving on to a new project?

Three Middle-Grade Debuts

Check out these new books!

Tess Hilmo’s WITH A NAME LIKE LOVE

One-sentence summary:

Southern murder mystery with heart and soul.

Favorite middle-grade character of all time:

My favorite MG character is easily Kit from THE WITCH OF BLACKBIRD POND. She is witty, spunky and fights for what she knows is right.  That book started my love affair with historical fiction.

Why you write middle grade:

I can't write anything other than middle grade. Every character I write comes out sounding like they are twelve or thirteen. So, I figured I should embrace it and have been writing middle grade ever since!

Sheela Chari’s VANISHED

One sentence summary:

11-year-old Neela dreams of being a famous musician until her instrument goes missing, and she must find a way to get it back.

Favorite middle-grade character of all time:

The character I admire the most is Lyra, from The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman. She is bold, assertive, and has a bad temper. I love that she's not perfect and not always easy to be around, but that her instinct is to do the right thing, that she is fiercely loyal to her friends, and finds solutions to her problems on her own.

Why you write middle grade:

I write middle grade because that's the age I remember the most distinctly from my childhood, at a time when I discovered and loved reading books. I think middle grade is my natural writing voice.

Anna Staniszewski’s MY VERY UNFAIRY TALE LIFE

One sentence summary:

12-year-old Jenny spends her days solving magical problems...but she's getting mighty sick of it, and she wants out.

Favorite middle-grade character of all time:

Oh dear. I have to pick just one? I think it would have to be Emma-Jean Lazarus. She's such a unique, layered character with her own logic and way of seeing the world. She's also pretty hilarious, whether she realizes it or not.

Why you write middle grade:

I write MG because that's what comes naturally to me. Often when I try to write for an older audience, it morphs into a MG story all by itself. I think this is partly because deep down I'll always been about 12 or 13. I also love the dynamic characters and rich storytelling that you often find in MG books.

Middle-Grade Survival Guides

Hilary's latest post had me mentally sifting through well-loved stories searching for the villains I love to hate. Fantasy is one of my favorite genres, and I like a good hand-clasping, character-torturing, mwa-ha-ha-laughing villain as much as the rest of you. Yet I remember when I was a young reader, some of the books that really gripped me were the man-against-nature ones. Hatchet. Julie of the Wolves. The Island of Blue Dolphins. The Sign of the Beaver. The Incredible Journey.

These were stories that captured my imagination in a way that wouldn't let go. The kind of tale that I would reread right away, even if I had just finished the book a few days before. As an adult, I wonder if some of the magic of these stories grew from the way my worldview was developing. Perhaps the new realization that the world was so much bigger than me provoked a fascinated respect for characters who could make it "out there" on their own.

What do you think? In past posts, we've identified that a distinctive of middle-grade stories is characters discovering their place within familial relationships, or, in the case of often-absent parents, learning identity in alternate forms of community, like a close-knit boarding school, grandparent figures, or the most loyal of friendships. But what about these survival books, where a character must make it on his own in a life-or-death scenario? Why do you think these stories appeal so much to middle-grade readers?

And, because seeing some of these covers again makes me want to go on a survival-story binge (that was the same image on my worn-out copy of The Sign of the Beaver), what are some of your favorites?

DragonCon (and Conferences in General)

This is not a costume I actually witnessed, but when I saw it I decided it was too adorable not to use. I take it she's some kind of Fairy Godmother Darth Vader.

Anyway, I took my kids to DragonCon in downtown Atlanta this weekend. With single day passes costing $50, and bringing 3 kids, we couldn't actually afford to get in to the conference. We still had a lot of fun just wandering around Peachtree Center and the hotel lobbies, though.

I met up with my friend and soon to be published author, Cole Gibsen, and her husband. Cole's debut YA novel, Katana, will be out in March 2012, from Flux. You can read more about Cole on her website. We've been friends for a little over a year, and have a lot of the same interests, and it was really fun to meet her, but it was a lot less glamorous than one might expect. The hectic rush of costumed geeks and freaks passing haphazardly around us was entertaining, but it wasn't exactly conducive to conversation. I also had my two daughters and one of their friends with me, so Cole and I didn't get to talk a lot of shop.

I'm bringing all this up, not to complain, but to pose a question to all you other writers out there: How often do you go to conferences, what kind of conferences do you go to, and how do you justify the cost?

I'm going to the World Fantasy Convention 2011 in San Diego next month, and I'll be going alone (as in without my family) so I'm hoping to get more networking done, but my understanding is that this kind of convention is more of a party than an industry business meet-up. Perhaps I'm going to the wrong conferences?

I don't know, I'm mostly joking, but I can't help but think that in this day and age, with the level of communication we have on the internet, paying for passes, hotels, meals, and plane tickets seems to make attending a bit prohibitive. Sure, if you're published you can write all your expenses off, but that doesn't make it free.

What do you guys think? Do you go to conferences? Which ones? How often? Am I just to poor to have a dream of becoming a published author?

No Internet = more writing? Not exactly...

Once upon a time, the Internet at Yahong's house went kaput.

Being unprepared for such a tragedy, she nevertheless made the most of it and proceeded to use all her time to write, as all good writers do. Unencumbered by the distractions of the WWW, Yahong managed to finish draft three of her WIP, process beta feedback and complete a major series of revisions, all within two weeks.

Ha. I wish.

No Internet (and no data plan on the iPhone) means no compulsive email checking, no meandering off into the blogosphere and no siren calls of solitaire, sure. But that doesn't equal higher wordcounts, or even quality output. I've always thought that if I could just afford to take one of those writers' retreats, where I could cut myself off from the rest of civilization -- no distractions, no worries, no responsibilites -- my novel would practically write itself.

Wrong. Instead, when I'd reach a particularly gnarly part of the plot, I'd set aside my pencil and reach instead for a book, reassuring myself that I was creatively unblocking myself. Or I'd turn to more menial writing tasks, like a review or a blog post. In essence, I was perfectly capable of creating my own distractions.

What does this all mean? It means that you shouldn't wait for better circumstances to start writing. (Although I wouldn't exactly say lacking Internet was a pleasant situation...) If you want to write, you write. Maybe you'll be more productive at a writers' retreat, or maybe you won't be. But attending a retreat doesn't make you a writer -- putting words on paper does.