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Writer's Corner
featuring articles on writing by Lisa Mondello
Articles may be used in RWA chapter newsletter with prior written permission. Please email Lisa Mondello.
Rejection: Rising to the Challenge
Rejection: Rising to the Challenge
by
Lisa Mondello
One of the things that you're going to face in your career as a writer is rejection. No matter how much you'd like to have everything you write be published with rave reviews, the odds are it's not going to happen. At some time or another, you're going to find yourself staring at a big envelope in your mailbox, dreading having to read the nasty little letter inside.
First thing to do when you receive a rejection letter is allow yourself to feel bad about it. Despite the tough skin you need to develop to stay alive in this industry, you are only human and rejection letters do hurt. Sit down, read your letter, then put it away for a few days until you can look at it again with an objective eye.
Next thing to do is get over it and get down to business. That's right. Nothing is going to kill your writing career faster than if you hold up in a hole and take every word of that rejection letter as a reflection of you. It's not. Writing is a business and as such, we need to separate our personal selves from our business selves, and look at lost opportunities as a challenge, not a setback.
So how do you rise to the challenge of a rejection letter? One way is to look at it with a critical eye. Decide what information you can use and what to discount as the personal preference of the editor. Then take a look at your story, and see if you agree with what the editor had to say.
Here's an example of personal preference from a rejection letter I received for my manuscript All I Want for Christmas...is You. The editor said she couldn't take the hero seriously because he played Santa Claus for the neighborhood kids. I'd received feedback from several other sources, and no one mentioned not being able to take the hero seriously. Since she was the only person who picked up on this, and it plays such a small role in the story, I decided to ignore that comment. She also said that although the manuscript was quite well written, they weren't buying books with an obvious seasonal theme and had to pass. The last part is clearly information I could use. The editor complimented me on a well written manuscript, but she wasn't buying Christmas stories. Since I happen to love Christmas stories, I won't bother sending my next manuscript with a seasonal theme to that editor for that particular line.
After you've stockpiled a few rejections, you may see a pattern from more than one editor. Look closely and you may be able to find a flaw in your writing that you can correct. I once received a rejection that said simply, "The complicated plot killed the budding romance." I sent the manuscript as is to another editor who said, "Although there are wonderfully descriptive passages and strong dialogue, there is too much going on in the story." This told me a lot. Either I had to kill off some of the funny secondary characters who, while charming, were distracting to the story, or I had to make the story longer to a give justice to the romance. In other words, I couldn't fit a whale in a fishbowl.
But wait, you've just received one of those impersonal form letter rejections. What can you possibly gain from one of those? Not much at face value. But as one fellow writer told me at a conference, "Beat the dog." I'm an animal lover and would never think of harming one, but I got her point. The only way to find out why the editor chose to pass on your manuscript is to ask. Although editors can't see the light of day with all the work they have, some will take the time to give you feedback on your manuscript if you write to them and ask. I've heard of more than one published author who has done just this and turned that first rejection into a sale.
Once you've decided which way you are going to go, you must send your manuscript out to someone else. I have a copy of an email hanging on the wall in front of my computer from a Harlequin author who consoled me after a rejection a few years ago. She said she'd received five rejections from an editor at another house. Each time the editor found something wrong with the story, but complimented her writing and asked to see more work. After the last rejection she decided to send the manuscript as is to Harlequin. She sold the manuscript and only needed to do minor revisions. She went on to sell all the other rejected manuscripts as well and has had a very successful career.
The opinion of one editor does not mean that your manuscript is not publishable or that no one else will love it. So rise to the challenge, and send that baby out again. That next editor may be the one who buys your book.
by
Lisa Mondello
So you're going to pitch your manuscript at a conference. You're nervous. You've stood in front of the mirror and rehearsed what you wrote on index cards a hundred times and now you are ready. Or are you?
If you're confident you can sum up your story in a few words and have no trouble getting editors to request your manuscript from query letters, you can skip reading this article. If you find yourself getting form letter rejections and have an opportunity to meet with an editor or agent in person, read on.
A perfect pitch is nothing more than a selling tool, but a very important one. Basically, it is a quick one page synopsis of your book. Done right, you can generate a memorable impression with an editor who will not only ask to see your manuscript, but remember it when it finally makes its way to the huge pile of manuscripts already in her office. In short, a perfect pitch can be an excellent way to get your manuscript through a closed door.
Since it is virtually impossible to sum up a 50,000 or 100,000 word book in just a few minutes, you'll have to dissect the story and decide what information is most important for the editor to know. In doing this, start with a statement about your protagonist's goal.
Example: To save her family's Montana ranch from foreclosure, Maddy Johnson needs the help of an experienced cowboy to teach her the business.
From the above statement, we learn the setting of the story takes place on a Montana ranch. And we learn that Maddy Johnson wants to save her family home, but doesn't know anything about how to run the ranch. We don't necessarily have to convey the reason she is clueless about how to save her own ranch. The fact that growing up she only spent summers on the ranch can wait until the editor reads the story.
Next, follow up with a question which includes the conflict.
Example: Can Maddy trust Beau Gentry, son of her father's long time rival and the man who broke her heart 10 years ago, not to have ulterior motives?
Here we learn the story has a classic family feud conflict and that Maddy and Beau have a history of some kind. After you've done this for the heroine, you need to also make a goal statement and a conflict question for the hero.
Once you've completed this, you need to be able to tell the editor how the hero and heroine deal with the conflict as they fall in love. It isn't necessary to say that the love scene takes place at the lake where Maddy and Beau met years before or that they first kiss at the county fair. The editor already knows they are going to fall in love. What is most important is why and how.
Example: As they fall in love, Maddy struggles with Beau's sense of control over her ranch. Although she's asked for his help, deep down she feels his interest in her has more to do with expanding his own family's spread than the love he professes. Ten years ago, she believed in his love, only to learn he'd been using her to get information for his father. When Beau stands beside her as his father tries to take over her ranch for the second time, Maddy learns of the plot his father hatched years ago and the lengths Beau went through to protect her and her family's reputation. She realizes he left her out of his love for her, not because he'd been using her.
The last example shows Maddy's internal and external struggle throughout the book and what the turning point is for her relationship with Beau.
To recap:
1.) Write a goal statement.
2.) Follow up with a question that includes the conflict.
3.) Tell the editor how the hero and heroine deal with the conflict and finally resolve it as they fall in love.
Do this for both the hero and the heroine and you'll not only have a perfect pitch, you'll have the makings of a great short synopsis that you can include with a query letter. Like a synopsis, a perfect pitch is meant to pique the editors interest enough to ask to see the full manuscript. If you've accomplished that, then you have a perfect pitch. Good luck.
by
Lisa Mondello
The Merriam-Webster Dictionary gives the definition of the word provoke as "to evoke, to bring on, the stir up on purpose". This is exactly what we must do as fiction writers. What are we provoking? An emotional reaction from the reader in the hope of hooking them into the story. No one wants to read bland writing.
We've all heard that we must hook our readers from the very first sentence or we'll lose their attention and they'll move on to another book. There is nothing more painful than reading blah dialogue and prose. It's not hard to spot. Here is an extreme example of blah dialogue from my seventh grade French class. Some of you might remember this from your days in school, too.
"Hello, Sylvie."
"Hello, Guy. How are you?"
"Fine. And you?"
"Okay."
I think even Sylvie and Guy are asleep after that piece of dialogue. This little snippet isn't memorable because of it's wonderful prose. The reason this has stuck with me as long as it has is because it got the most laughs when we had to recite it for a week in French. It's good practice for French class, but lousy for fiction writing.
Fiction readers demand much more. With every word, they want you to reach inside them and pull their emotions to the front-line. They not only want to laugh and cry with your hero and heroine, they want to be in the thick of it, and worry about them. If your don't evoke that emotion, they'll move on to something that is more interesting. Something more provocative.
Let's take another example of something written more provocative:
"I'm sorry, Michael," Lorna said evenly. "But I have to let you go."
Michael forced himself to remain calm and stood ram-rod straight in front of Lorna, staring in disbelief as the woman leveled him.
Are you wondering what just happened to Michael? You should be. You know by Michael's reaction that Lorna is not simply telling him she has to end a pleasant phone conversation because she is busy. This is personal and has hit him hard, otherwise Michael's reaction would not be so strong. Is Lorna his lover trying to end their relationship? Is Lorna a vital client who has decided to cancel her account with his firm? Or is she his boss, telling him he is now unemployed? The response Michael gives depends on the storyline. But you know that a statement like the one Lorna delivered warrants an emotion response.
For the sake of argument, let's use the scenario that Michael has just lost his job. What might his response be?
"I'm sorry, too. I'll get my things and be gone," he said before storming through her office door.
Okay. But it's still not provocative. How about:
"Firing me because I'm a single father, Lorna? I thought you were more progressive than that."
Michael has just shot back with another provocative statement that challenges Lorna character. He's made the stakes higher by making it personal and evokes her need to defend herself. Let's take a look at how the rest of the scene plays out.
To her credit, Lorna did her best to look Michael in the eye. In the end she failed, giving her answer as she fiddled with a file on her desk. "I've been on the receiving end of this bureaucracy, just like you. I know it's stinks, but I have no choice."
Michael pitched her a cynical laugh. "Is this your way of showing the brass that you're as tough as all your male counterparts on single parents taking time off? You use to rally behind single mothers who didn't have any support when their kids were sick. You use to be one of them."
"I still am. Nothing has changed."
"You're wrong there, Lorna. There was a time you refused to turn your back on someone in my shoes. Said you didn't know how. You're awfully good at it now."
Lorna didn't try to stop Michael as he spun through the door. She could have defended herself and told him her choices were just as hard as his. But in the end, she knew he was right. She'd sold her principles for the easy way out.
You can see the emotional interaction heat up between Lorna and Michael and the tension rise. There is a lot at stake for both of them. While not all interaction between the characters in your story will be heated or provocative, it should be evident in most scenes. Provocative writing should start with the first page and continue throughout the story. Keep the tension going and you'll have your readers hooked until the last page is turned.
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