LUCK OR SKILL

Ek'abo Ebi! (Welcome Family)

Saturday night, my hubby and I played Spades with a few friends. For those of you who are not familiar, here are the basics.  Spades is a card game where you bid how many books (books always consist of four cards each) you have in your hand before you start playing the game.  Usually when you play with a partner, the number of books you bid depends on how many books each of you feel you can contribute to the bid.  You usually play with four people and only 13 books can be made. In a deck of 52 cards, the cards in each suit rank from highest to lowest. (A, K, Q, J, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3 and 2) Spades have the most power.  They can cut a diamond, club, or heart (and sometimes even themselves). The order of the spades as far as their strength is Big Joker, Little Joker, Deuce (meaning two) of Diamonds, Deuce of Spades, Ace of Spades, King of Spades, Queen, Jack, 10 through 3 of spades. There is more to the game, but you get the point J

Anyway, my hubby and I bid 8 books between us and won those books.  For that entire game, any books we bid, we won.  All in all, we kicked their butts LOL. Our luck however did not last. When the next game came around we got our butts kicked! The winning and losing went back and forth. Thrust and Parry. Thrust and Parry. I’m sure you have figured out how spirited this game can be. My hubby and I won 2 games and our competitors won 2 games. We played one more game and won, thereby breaking the tie. We had a great time.

During the game, a thought crossed my mind. When you are trying to publish a book, and you receive that coveted phone call. Did you get the call because your work appeared on a publisher's or agent's desk just at the right time?  Or was your work so exceptional that they could not help but reach out to you?   Was it luck that got you that call or skill?

 I’ve read a number of author’s testimonies where they’ve said things like:

 “My book came across the publisher’s desk at a time when my particular choice of genre was starting to become very popular.”

“The literary agent told me that my book was well written but unfortunately, they could not find the right market to publish it in.”

 “I was surprised by my rejection letter.  The agent actually took the time to tell me that although she could not represent me at this time, I should continue to push forward; that I just might find an agent that’s a good fit!”

These days’ publishers and literary agents are so demanding that I really believe its 95% skill and 5% luck that get you published. There is a certain level of presentation that they expect to see and it all begins with the query letter. Depending on the genre you are pursuing, your query letter should not only summarize your book in the shortest, most interesting way possible, but it should also flow in a way that will leave them chomping at the bit, ready to read more.

But sometimes, even the query letter is not enough. The publisher or agent may ask for the first 3 chapters of your work and decide that something is missing. Perhaps the characters need more work or the location of your story is unclear or you were foolish enough not to have your work professionally edited. Writer ‘A’ and ‘B’ both have a good chance of being published, but writer ‘B’ just didn’t dot that ‘I’ or cross that ‘T’.

Issues with publishing can even become a problem after you receive representation. Perhaps your literary agent or publisher is no longer a good fit. The momentum that you both started at the beginning has dwindled. You no longer share the same interest in your book. Your agent or publisher has not marketed your book to your liking and now you are back where you started, trying to find someone new without burning bridges.

Regardless, publishing as you well know can be a stressful, time consuming, rewarding experience. And whether you are considered due to the luck of the draw or a talent that cannot be denied, getting your foot through that hypothetical or literal ‘door’ is a blessing indeed.

Continued luck fam! LOL!

Mari e laipe!

See you soon!

S-

*****

Thanks for visiting ‘Amachi is Hope.’ If you were inspired or felt a connection with today’s blog (or any of my previous entries) please leave a comment. J

EMOTIONS

Ek'abo Ebi! (Welcome Family!)

Love, Hate, Fear, Happiness.  What does it take to write about emotions?  What does it take to be able to use words to express emotion? To get a reader to feel and understand a character’s pain, anxiety, joy, exhilaration you name it. Does one have to personally experience an emotion in order to write about?

 

I remember reading a story where one of the main characters was a writer.  The character was famous and had published many books.  In a review written by a critic in the story, the character was accused of being incapable of creating a true love scene.  He said that he did not think that the author had ever been in love.  He wondered if the character had ever experienced real heartbreak or had ever been separated from a great love.  He said the love scene was bland, lukewarm at best.  And until he truly experiences it: all encompassing, I can’t breathe without you, my life is over if you are not with me love, he will never be able to truly express it on paper. Goodness… Can you imagine a critic saying that about you? We pour our heart and emotions into writing. The last thing we need is to be told that we are lacking.

I’m not sure I completely agree with the critic’s view.  You can witness an individual’s pain.  You may have witnessed someone’s grief when they received bad news.  You can witness a person’s joy.  My friend was in the birthing room with her sister the day that her niece was born.  You can witness tension.  I did the day my son came home after getting in trouble at school. J

But I do agree that life experiences bring something more to a story; a way of connecting with a reader on a higher level.  Say you write a book about your experiences as a child of divorced parents. You’d want the reader to see the break up through your eyes.  To understand the anger, frustration or fear that a child would experience when their parents go their separate ways. God forbid one of them gets remarried. “What about me? I thought I was daddy’s little girl or daddy’s best man? Why do I have to talk to her? Why do I have to share my daddy with her? Doesn’t anyone care about how I feel? He’s having a new baby?!” Just from a few questions, you can feel, imagine and maybe even visualize the hurt, pain or frustration a young girl or boy would feel if she or he was placed in such a situation.

Writing about emotion and doing it right can be just as difficult as writing about a different culture.  You may feel like you’re swimming in Dungeness waters; walking on a path that’s unknown to you.  If you are writing about someone else’s experiences; how they felt when it happened, you want to do it justice.  No one wants to be told that their written recollection of someone else’s emotions or their idea of how a person should feel in a situation, is bland or lukewarm at best J

The better you get at building your skill, the more you understand that there are words that give that “extra punch” to a scene.  A shrug of a shoulder, a roll of an eye, a sigh, a clench of a fist.  Sometimes body gestures say just as much as words.  Then there are emotions that occur from within. “Carol could feel it. A flutter in her stomach; a tightening in her chest. She wrapped her arms around her torso; hoping to protect herself.  Carol sucked her teeth in disgust. Why did this have to happen every time she saw him? He’s married for goodness sake! It has been 10 years and nothing has changed.” From those few lines, the reader experiences the character’s nervousness, vulnerability, irritation and longing.  It’s obvious that she harbors feelings for another character, but she hates the way it makes her feel. J

Have you written an emotional scene in your book? Does it call out to the reader?  If you are not sure, ask someone you trust to read it over and have them give you their opinion.  I’ve done this with great results in the past.

Mari e laipe!

See you soon!  

S-

*****

Thanks for visiting ‘Amachi is Hope.’ If you were inspired or felt a connection with today’s blog (or any of my previous entries) please leave a comment. J