I'm Taking an Indefinite Break

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to announce that when I finally get around to completing my historical fantasy novel THE DARK AND THE SAPPHIRE (sequel to THE RED AND THE SCARLET), I will be taking an indefinite break from writing. This may mean for good, it may not, hence indefinite. I will probably still blog here, as I'm happy to share the loads of advice I've gathered and hunted down over nearly eight years of writing, but I myself will not be writing. This includes dropping my pursuit of getting published and continuing on my unfinished projects other than TDATS and a story my sister and I hope to get around to co-writing. Before y'all protest, there's a number of factors in my decision.


1. College

I simply don't have time for anything these days beyond occasionally decompressing with my friends in the library or over a movie, and that usually involves homework anyway. I'm projected to have close to twenty credits every semester except when student teaching, and y'all who have student taught know how much time that leaves you. I tried to reboot my writing habits (I went from writing a thousand words a day to maybe ten words a month) with Camp NaNoWriMo, but it's just not working. I ended up losing sleep trying to catch up with the word count goal. I'm too busy.

2. Lack of Interest

I've written nine novels, queried three, and out of them all, THE RED AND THE SCARLET is the finest thing I've ever written. Normally, every time you write something new, it becomes the finest thing you've ever written, but my recent works, though polished and possibly more advanced technically, are just not working for me at all and do not have the depth and development of TRATS. Knowing my limits, I doubt I'll be able to top the TRATS and TDATS duology. As it is, I'm struggling to keep the end of TDATS up to par with the rest of the work. That said, I've been querying TRATS and though it fits the market beautifully (diversity, female POC lead, historical fantasy in a non-European setting, upper YA, siblings and pirates and revolution and politics and slow-burning romance), I essentially have been told the same thing about fifty times: "This is amazing, but I don't want it. But don't give up on it! I KNOW someone else will love it!"

Unfortunately, despite the gatekeepers' promises, no one else wants it.

I've revised TRATS and edited the heck out of it according to people's advice, and I dare not go further trying to groom it for the market. It's as marketable as anything (I always get plenty of favorites in pitch contests and plenty of requests), and I've combed it over a span of three years now for what exactly is wrong with it, and I've found my answer: nothing. It's just not my time to get published, apparently, or it may be that it's just not in my future at all. As hard as it is, especially with people encouraging me that I'm destined to get published, it's time to come to grips with the reality that it's just not happening.

That said, it's exciting seeing everyone who has helped me out and vice versa get picked up by agents and publishers. A good deal, if not all, of my #YayYA friends, fellow contest entrants, and pitch swappers have signed deals, and I'll gladly stand on the sidelines to offer feedback and wave pompoms for those of you still looking for a bite. Personally, though, for me, it's time to hang up the towel. I do still have a couple queries out there in the blue, and if I was to suddenly get an offer on TRATS, I'd undoubtedly pick up the pen again, but otherwise I am not planning on continuing to query.

3. Next Stage

Yes, yes, I know, I'm young. But I think this moving on is just an unfortunate part of growing up. I've been writing in chapter form since I was 5 and hoping to get published almost just as long, but there's a difference between being an excellent teen writer in a world of excellent adult writers and getting attention for that and then being another adult writer in a overcrowded market. It's kind of like going from being the most top-notch student at your high school to being just another scholarship winner at your college full of other former best-in-their-school kids. Sometimes being a prodigy doesn't mean success later in life, and it seems this is the direction my talent in writing is going.



That all said, I just want to make a couple things clear :)

1. No, I'm not considering self-publishing 

2. I will still be blogging on both of my blogs

3. I will still hold #YayYAs in the future

4. I'm still happy to read your work before you sub to contests/agents

5. I'm immensely grateful to everyone to put their time and effort into me and my work and trying to help me. Your efforts were not in vain. They just helped in ways unrelated to publishing (I now have a wonderful community of online friends!)

Thanks everyone, again! If you have questions, I'm happy to answer.

Happy Writing! I'll enjoy hearing about how you all are progressing with your own writing journey.

Mine is seemingly drawing to a close.

So I'm Going to College...

The title is pretty self-explanatory :D But yes, a week from today will be my last day of freshman orientation at Geneva College in Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, not far from Pittsburgh. I sit here at Arthur, my laptop, with my WIP open next to my browser, trying to write as much as possible before the school onslaught.

So for the sake of order, I'll attempt to answer some of the questions I get pretty frequently as of recent.

1. WAIT. You're STARTING college????

Yes, I am that young :D

2. So do you know what your major is yet?

Yes, I do! I will be majoring in Secondary History Education. So I'll be a history high school teacher. I will not be playing sports despite Geneva's big (for a small private college big) sports program, but hope to try out for choir.

3. What made you choose Geneva?

I applied to a couple of schools, and it came down to either Anderson University in Anderson, South Carolina, or Geneva. I went with Geneva because offered me a very nice scholarship, my parents met and graduated there, and I've been to the campus a couple times. Geneva offered the exact major I wanted and has an excellent reputation in its education department. I also grew up in Pennsylvania, albeit on the other side of the state.

4. Will you still be blogging/reviewing/vlogging/writing/hosting #YayYA/on the face of the earth?

Yes, I will. My internet appearances will be understandably more sporadic, and the next #YayYA may be on hold for a while, but I will be blogging and vlogging and keeping in touch with my writerly tweeps on Twitter and my IRL friends on Facebook/Instagram. I've kind of gotten behind in my Newbery reviews, but hopefully I'll have more of those out soon, too.

5. How can I help?

Where you can help is to tell me what topics you'd like me to touch on, whether it's worldbuilding, market, pitching, cake recipes, War and Peace fangirling... okay, just kidding with that last one (mostly kidding anyway), but really, feel free to throw ideas at me! It'll prompt me to write posts and then there will be posts about what you want to read!

Also, subscribe to my blog and to my Youtube channel, and if you don't already, follow me on Twitter @whatshewrote (forewarning if you're a non-writer: I pretty much use Twitter for writing only).

I'll be making the move this coming Monday, so prayers and thoughts are appreciated as my family will be trekking from Oklahoma to Pennsylvania to drop me off. Thank you in advance! :D

If you have any further questions about anything about life, the universe, and everything, I'm hoping to film a Q+A video soon! Feel free to ask in the blog comments and on Twitter.

Cheers!

Rachel

New Vlog!! What She Wrote Episode #005: Six Resources for New Writers

Sorry for the hiatus, y'all. Too many pre-collegey things happening. But here you go! Episode five, in which I share my favorite resources for new writers. The links to the aforementioned resources are in the video's description. Don't forget to subscribe, if you haven't!


Next week will be on the topic of fantasy world building. Also, hit me up with questions! I hope to do a Q+A video sometime soon.


Enjoy!!

Vlog Episode #002: Why You Shouldn't Use Speculative Fiction as a Genre

Hi readers! Here's episode two of the What She Wrote vlog, Why You Shouldn't Use Speculative Fiction as a Genre.

I've seen a lot of people use spec. fic. as a genre. Here's why you shouldn't.

Let me know what you think or feel free to ask questions in the comments!

5 Things You Should Know About Pitch Contests

The winter quarter of pitch contests is upon us! Between Sun vs. Snow, hosted by Michelle Hauck and Amy Trueblood, and Pitch Madness, created by Brenda Drake, many authors in the Twittersphere are scrubbing fervently at their log lines and the first 250 words of their completed manuscripts, polishing their work in hopes of reaching the agent rounds.

Do you have a polished, unpublished (this includes self-published) manuscript for a novel? Does it fit somewhere between the age spectrum of middle grade to adult? Are you hoping to sign an agent?
If you answered yes to all of those questions, entering a pitch contest is invaluable experience. Here's five reasons why:

1. You Will Learn How to Summarize Your Story

Before I entered QueryKombat for the first time, I was having difficulty developing a strong pitch. A good pitch is character+goals+stakes, but... let's face it... sometimes that's hard to pare down, especially for fantasy or humorous stories or books with multiple POV characters.
In the publishing world, your novel, dozens of thousands of words long, will always be cropped by either a log line, or a "dust jacket summary." Contests and the critique that comes with them will make you do this, and do it well.

2. You Will Make Connections in the Writersphere

The wonderful people who host these contests are often published or agented authors who know the mechanics of the chessboard called literary publishing. Sometimes, contests feature mentor rounds, and while I have yet to enter one that features mentors, I know of success stories where writers' contest mentors referred them to their own agents, or at the very least, became important critique partners. And of course, it's always good to connect with people of your trade, especially when it comes to building a future platform.

3. You Will Learn Where Your Work is Lacking

The great thing about these contests is that there are some bloggers and authors who host peer critiques, and I learned quickly how crucial such critiques can be. When a contest is coming around, come up with the best pitch you can on your own, and share it with someone who knows the story for their opinion. After that, test it on the peer critique waters. In one of these forums, someone pointed out to me that she misread a segment of my pitch, "1811 nobility," not to mean "nobility living in the year 1811," but as "one thousand, eight hundred and eleven noblemen!" Whoops!

4. You Will Get a Feel for the Market

Publishing, like any business that mass-produces art for public enjoyment, is extremely subjective. Tastes change in matters of months, or even weeks, and the winning selections that move onto agent rounds and are requested will give you an indication of the current appetite.

At the moment, the market is generally crowded. No particular genre is out or in (with the exceptions of vampires/angels and Hunger Games-esque dystopian). This makes even harder to determine request trends among agents, as many will request (besides looking for strong voice and plots) out of personal taste. Contest results will give you a glimpse into what's being signed.

5. You Will Have Fun!

The one consistent thing about these contests is that they are loads of fun. In the last Pitchslam I entered, we had to answer questions that related our main characters to the Avengers, using the hashtag on Twitter. It was hilarious to see other authors' answers, trying to make the connections in humorous ways. The general attitude of these contests is supportive and entertaining. I promise that if you enter one, you won't regret it!

Remember, before entering a contest, research all the rules and decide if you and your work is ready for entry!