2018 Bram Stoker Awards Nominee

I am thrilled to announce that BABY TEETH has been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel! I am incredibly grateful to the Horror Writers Association and all of the members and readers who voted for BABY TEETH. The winners will be announced at StokerCon on May 11. See the full list of nominees here - and congrats to all!!!

Questions From Writers (Part One)

I recently posted a message on Twitter asking for suggestions for blog topics that would be helpful to writers. I decided to try and address as many of the topics/ questions as I can, so here is the first batch:

"When it comes to your own ideas for books, how do you ensure that it is an authentic idea and that you haven't unintentionally piggy-backed on an idea that may have been done?" This question covers a couple of different topics, as I interpret it as both "how do you write something that isn't derivative" and "how do you find a novel-worthy idea" – and these are both legitimate issues. To some degree we are all inspired and influenced by things we read and see, and I think it's great to be affected by the art we encounter, in addition to real life. And they say that there are only "X" number of plots and we are all writing variations of those. The thing that adds depth and originality to those tried and true plots is YOU—you, the writer.

It is incumbent upon each of us to dig deeply into our imaginations (or experiences) for character nuances, or plot twists, or details about some aspect of the world that we don't see every day. This could be related to your descriptions, or setting, or philosophy, or culture, or…? The possibilities are endless, which is how every book, even when related in theme or plot, is ultimately a unique story. The other part of YOU that comes into play is your "voice"—the style in which you write. Some beginning writers fret over this and want to adopt the writing style of someone they admire; this is another way that work can become derivative. With time, we each develop our own voice and sensibilities, and that helps to make every story unique, even if it isn't 100% "original."

And to briefly address this "novel-worthy idea" issue: I had never considered this until I read Les Edgerton's craft book, HOOKED. He very clearly explains a "surface problem" versus a "story-worthy problem." A novel needs to have a big enough "problem"—challenging enough to resolve—that it can span hundreds of pages, and is worth the investment (yours and the reader's). Novels require several levels of conflict, from the internal needs of characters, to the more "external" elements of certain kinds of plots. Another pair of craft books that I highly recommend are Donald Maass's WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL and WRITING THE BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKBOOK. When a writer becomes more aware of all the elements a good story needs—all of the nuances that YOU will be creating—I think it becomes less likely that their work will seem to "piggy-back" on something that already exists.       

"Dealing with rejection during the query process." There are not a lot of ways to make constant rejection easier so, to the degree that you can, accept it as a rite of passage. Lest you think "What does she know?": In 2003 I made a 25-minute documentary about the first ONE THOUSAND rejections I received in my combined pursuits of screenwriting and playwriting (plus poetry and short story submissions). And I've received many, many more rejections since then. And you know what? It DID become less traumatic. And when I finally got an agent and sold my first book, I felt a certain confidence in having "paid my dues."

Let's break this down a bit for novelists, since querying agents often involves hitting certain milestones:

I would recommend paying attention to the effectiveness of your query letter and sample pages. If you send out 15 queries and don't get a single response—and I mean not a single "no thank you" form email—your query letter is broken and you need to rewrite it. If you send out a new batch of 15 queries and you get a few form responses, and maybe a couple of personal "no thank yous," and one full or partial request, you're definitely doing much better, but I'd never rule out the possibility of improving your query. Send batches; gauge the response; consider reworking your query before sending another batch.

Now let's imagine a scenario where you master that query and start getting a large percentage of requests. YAY you!! You've found the right way to excite agents with your story! But then, to your great disappointment, the rejections start coming in. And everyone knows it hurts more to get rejections based on a full or partial manuscript than on a 3-paragraph query. Not only is the manuscript a better marker of your overall storytelling ability, but the emotional excitement of imagining your career going to the next level is unavoidable. So what do you do?

In this scenario, you need to take a hard look at your book's first few pages. Is your story starting in the wrong place? Is there too much backstory or an unnecessary prologue? Is your grammar sloppy? Is there enough tension? Do you give readers enough reasons to keep reading? Do they know who the protagonist is? If you start getting a lot of requests based on your query, but no subsequent interest, I think the best next step is to look for likely culprits in your first 10 or 20 or 30 pages.

For all of these reasons, it pays to query in small batches, so that you can fix things before you run through your whole list of agents! I know this doesn't solve the emotional heartache of rejection, but maybe it will help you identify some of the reasons why those rejections are happening. Friends, it's a long process for most of us: don't give up!

"Any suggestions for own-voice writers, especially in light of Dan Mallory's recent deception about what his true medical issues are?" I hate that there are pathological liars in the world, and they don't deserve a reward for their dishonesty. With that said, all you can do is be your authentic self; we have no control over what other people do. Dan Mallory/A.J. Finn manipulated people with tales of personal and family health tragedies; it seems to have worked for him, but that is no reason to either inflate your own background, or hide it. If your background is relevant to the story you're telling and you want people to know it's #ownvoices, don't fear that it will be held against you now because of Mallory/Finn (as the asker of this question was concerned). Most people in publishing are both smart and honest, and most writers are smart and honest. Mallory/Finn's story registers with many of us as being "unfair," but that is primarily because he was awarded a certain kind of privilege as a charismatic white man (who, frankly, sounds a bit sociopathic). Whatever the publishing business ultimately takes away from this (if anything), I don't think it will negatively impact people who have genuine experiences with physical or mental health issues. 

Happy Writing!! 
- Zoje