Vlog: INTO THE BLACK Unboxing!

I was going to do a Halloween vlog but then I got a package in the mail... :)

RELATED LINKS: 

• INTO THE BLACK Pre-Order Campaign!
• BEYOND THE RED Unboxing
• All About BEYOND THE RED (Part 1)
• All About BEYOND THE RED (Part 2)

Twitter-sized bite:

Watch @Ava_Jae see the finished copy of their 2nd book for the 1st time + a sneak peek inside INTO THE BLACK! (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Feature #40

Photo credit: vpickering on Flickr

November is nearly here! Which means the holiday season is so close you can already hear the music, the cooler weather is on it's way in the northern hemisphere (in theory) and, of course, it's time for the next fixing the first page feature!

As usual, I'll start by posting the full first 250 excerpt, after which I'll share my overall thoughts, then my redline critique. I encourage you guys to share your own thoughts and critiques in the comments (because I'm one person with one opinion!), as long as it's polite, thoughtful, and constructive. Any rude or mean comments will be unceremoniously deleted.

Let's do this.

Title: ONE MORE SAD SONG

Genre/Category: YA Contemporary

First 250: 

"Zeke Williams had had his first wet dream about his best friend when he was thirteen years old. It had been one of his first wet dreams,period, definitely the first one that he remembered, not one where he just woke up sticky and feeling a little bit grossed out, a little bit satisfied, a lot bit totally unaware what had just happened. In this one he’d been with Kevin and they’d been skating, going up and down the cul-de-sac Kevin lived in, doing rudimentary tricks on the makeshift ramps Kevin had managed to cobble together, and then Zeke had taken a pretty bad spill and then while Kevin was patching him up… 

He’d never forgotten about it, and now, four years later when they were going into their junior year of high school, still trying to do stupid tricks off of a cobbled together ramp, as he fucked up his balance and ended up skidding pretty far on the rough asphalt, tearing the hell out of his forearms, he had a brief flashback to the dream. Kevin kicked up his board and came for him. 'I’m good,' he said. He pushed himself up to sit and poked at his arm. Some good-looking roadburn, but nothing broken, and it was just his arm. He didn’t skateboard with his arm. 

'I’ll go get some gauze,' Kevin said. 'Gotta wrap that shit up, son.'"

Hmmm okay. So, I definitely feel like you could show Zeke has a crush on his best friend without immediately diving into, like...wet dreams. Not that there's anything wrong with wet dreams, but it's very personal information for a character we are meeting right this second. It also kind of treads a little into fetishizing territory, which I know was not the intention, but yeah, that's a thing.

I think, instead, it'd be more effective (and less likely to immediately turn readers off) if you showed Zeke's crush through his interactions with Kevin in the moment, through his thoughts and internal reactions. Maybe he briefly considers how embarrassed (or whatever) he is that he's had those kind of dreams about his best friend, which is fine, but I wouldn't recommend starting with that.

So that's what I'm thinking overall right now. Let's dive into the line edits.

"Zeke Williams had had his first wet dream about his best friend when he was thirteen years old. It' had been one of his first wet dreams,[space]period, definitely the first one that he remembered, not one where he just woke up sticky and feeling a little bit grossed out, a little bit satisfied, a lot bit totally unaware what had just happened I find this bit hard to believe. Even at thirteen, he'd know what happened. Even if his school didn't do sex ed, he would've heard from his peers, or the media, etc. In this one he’d been with Kevin and they’d been skating, going up and down the Kevin's cul-de-sac Kevin lived in, doing rudimentary easy tricks on the makeshift ramps Kevin had managed to cobbled together, and then Zeke had taken a pretty bad spill and then while Kevin was patching him up… 

He’d never forgotten about it, and now, four years later when they were going into their junior year of high school, still trying to do stupid tricks off of a cobbled together ramp, as he fucked up his balance and ended up skiddeding pretty far on the rough asphalt, tearing the hell out of his forearms, he had a brief flashback to the dream. 

[new paragraph]Kevin kicked up his board and came for him. 

[new paragraph]'I’m good,.' he said. He pushed himself up to siat up and poked at his arm. Some good-looking road[space]burn, but nothing broken, and it was just his arm. He didn’t skateboard with his arm. 

'I’ll go get some gauze,' Kevin said. 'Gotta wrap that shit up, son.'"

So most of the changes I'm suggesting here are just to condense wordiness, which is a super common critique and something I think we all need to weed out of our work at some point. Overall I think the most important thing is to just reconsider how you open this project. As is, if I saw this in the slush, I would pass.

I hope that helps! Thanks for sharing your first 250 with us, Aurora!

Twitter-sized bite:

.@Ava_Jae talks reworking openings, wordiness and more in the 40th Fixing the First Page Feature. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: Is NaNoWriMo Worth It?

We all know it: NaNoWriMo is not an easy challenge. But is it worth it to participate?

RELATED VLOGS:

• To NaNo or Not to NaNo?
• 4 Fast Drafting Tips
• Top 5 NaNoWriMo Tips
• All the NaNoWriMo Playlist

Have you participated in NaNoWriMo? Will you this year?

Twitter-sized bite:

Is participating in #NaNoWriMo worth it? @Ava_Jae shares their thoughts and experiences NaNoing. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Winner #40!

Photo credit: clevercupcakes on Flickr

Another month, another off-schedule post to announce the winner of the fortieth (!!!) fixing the first page feature giveaway!

*drumroll*

And the fortieth winner is…

AURORA DIMITRE!

Yay! Congratulations, Aurora!

Thanks again to all you wonderful entrants! If you didn't win, as always, there'll be another fixing the first page giveaway in November (how are we already talking about November?), so as always, keep an eye out!

Your Yearly NaNoWriMo Round-Up

Photo credit: sushimustwrite on Flickr

It's that time of year again! NaNoWriMo is less than two weeks away, so if you think you might want to participate but haven't yet made plans, there's no time like the present. So today I'm sharing my tweaked yearly re-post of NaNoWriMo goodies that you might find helpful. 

For those who haven’t decided on whether or not they want to NaNo, I have a post for you. And if you don’t click, but you’re on the fence, I’ll say that I’ve participated three times and totally loved it. Granted, I'm a fast-drafter, and NaNoWriMo really works best for those open to fast-drafting (which is not everyone, and that's okay!), but it’s been super super effective for me in the past.

As I said last year, I’ve written four manuscripts (or a good chunk of it at least) in NaNo-like settings (three November NaNoWriMos and one Camp NaNo). While the community, and excitement, and pretty graphs all are always very tempting me to join, I'll be sitting this one out as I am really behind on writer and author stuff right now and will need all of November to catch up. So fingers crossed that happens.

Because it’s October and NaNoPrepMo, you will very possibly find this post on Pre-NaNoWriMo Tips helpful! Because prepping for NaNo, I’ve found, makes the NaNoing experience much easier. And less stressful. To a point.

To contrast two very different NaNo experiences, the first time I NaNoed, I made NaNoWriMo super difficult for myself by abandoning my first NaNo project on day fourteen and scrapping 24,000 words to start something new. (Yes, really.) Then two years ago I went a little type-crazy and finished in nine days. Still not totally sure how that happened, and I haven't repeated that level of productivity since, but it was definitely an experience.

I’ve also shared ten foolproof secrets to winning NaNoWriMo (which are actually not the least bit foolproof and please don’t do those things, thanks).

Two years ago I didn’t NaNo, but I did record a six-vlog, week-by-week vlog series (including before and after) specifically for surviving NaNoWriMo. You might find it helpful to watch them ahead of time.

And finally, here's a compilation of helpful NaNoWriMo links that I shared on the first day of NaNoWriMo three years ago but I’ll give to you early, for funsies, and also because hopefully you'll find them helpful.

If you have any helpful links for future NaNo-ers, share them below! And also, will you be participating in NaNoWriMo this year?

Twitter-sized bite:

Thinking about participating in #NaNoWriMo this year? @Ava_Jae rounded up helpful tip posts. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: On Juggling Multiple WIPs at Once

You asked, so today I'm sharing my thoughts on working on multiple manuscripts at once—and whether I think it's a good idea.

RELATED VLOGS: 

• 4 Tips for Keeping Yourself Accountable
• 4 Things I've Learned Since Getting Published
• How Do You Know When You're Done Revising?
• 4 Non-Writing Writing Tips
• 4 Productivity Tips

Do you work on multiple WIPs at once?

Twitter-sized bite:

Do you work on multiple WIPs at once? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Giveaway #40!

Photo credit: Annas Ateljé on Flickr

What the hell, guise, how are we halfway through October? I swear I blinked and now Halloween is nearly here and November is around the corner. Which is bizarre. But also means it's time for the next Fixing the First Page giveaway!

For those who’ve missed before, the Fixing the First Page features is a public first 250 word critique. Using the lovely rafflecopter widget, anyone interested in winning a public (as in, featured in a post on this blog) first page critique can enter.

For an example of what this critique will look like, here's the last Fixing the First Page post.

Rules!

• ONLY the first 250 words will be critiqued (up to finishing the sentence). If you win and send me more, I will crop it myself. No exceptions.


• ONLY the first page. I don’t want 250 random words from your manuscript, or from chapter 3. If you win the critique and send me anything other than the first 250 words of your manuscript, I will choose someone else.


• I will actually critique it. Here. On the blog. I will say things as nicely as I can, but I do tend to be a little blunt. If you’re not sure you can handle a public critique, then you may want to take some time to think about it before you enter.


• Genre restrictions. I'm most experienced with YA & NA, but I will still accept MG and Adult. HOWEVER. If your first page has any erotic content on it, I ask that you don’t enter. I want to be able to post the critique and the first 250 in its entirety without making anyone uncomfortable, and if you win and you enter a page with erotic content, I will choose someone else.


• You must have your first page ready. Should you win, you need to be able to submit your first page within 48 hours of my contacting you to let you know you won. If 48 hours pass and I haven’t heard from you, again, I will choose someone else.


• You’ll get the most out of this if it isn’t a first draft. Obviously, I have no way of knowing if you’re handing me a first draft (though I will probably suspect because it’s usually not that difficult to tell). I won’t refuse your page if it’s a first draft, but you should know that this critique will likely be of more use if you’ve already had your betas/CPs look over it. Why? Because if you don’t, the critique I give you will probably contain a lot of notes that your betas & CPs could have/would have told you.


• There will not be a round 2 (unless you win again in a future contest). I hate to have to say this, but if you win a critique, it’s NOT an invitation to send me a bunch of your revisions. I wish I had the time available to be able to look at revisions, but sadly, I don’t. If you try to break this rule, I will nicely say no, and also remember to choose someone else should you win a second contest. Which would make me sad. :(

So that’s it! If you’re okay with all of the above and would like to enter to be the thirty-seventh public critique on Writability, do the thing with the rafflecopter widget below. You have until Friday, October 20 at 11:59 PM EST to enter!


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Discussion: Do You Read Books Similar to Your WIPs?

Photo credit: kbrookes on Flickr

As I revise the last book of the Beyond the Red trilogy (which is surreal, and weird, but also, in a way, feels right), I've been thinking about all the YA Sci-Fi books I'm going to catch up on. Because since 2013, when I first started writing Beyond the Red, I've let my YA Sci-Fi reading—especially Sci-Fi that involves other planets, or aliens, or space—fall to the wayside with only a couple exceptions.

It wasn't an accident, either.

I think it's really important to know your genre and category really well—and I do feel that I do know YA Sci-Fi relatively well. But as a person with a lot of anxiety, I've also experienced more than my fair share of anxiety attacks over my brain convincing me my book(s) are too similar to books that are already out there. And not in a Red Queen is similar to Hunger Games and both are successful kind of way, but in a THE AUTHOR WILL SUE YOU FOR PLAGIARISM kind of way, which is an irrational fear because no, I've never plagiarized nor will I ever, but anxiety disorders aren't rational with their brain spirals.

So, as a way of coping with that, and also as a way of avoiding the worry as I write that I'm being too influenced by what I've recently read (which, as you can imagine, is a paralyzing thing to worry about), I've avoided books even remotely similar to what I'm working on.

And you know? Anxiety-wise, it's worked: I haven't had an anxiety attack over too similar!! in over a year now. And as a nice bonus, I now have a pretty decent idea of all of the YA Sci-Fi alien/space books I'd like to catch up on.

As I start thinking about projects I'm going to work on after I'm done with The Rising Gold, I've acknowledged I'll want to do research before I start writing—research involving other books in the genre and category that aren't too similar to my premise, but will still help me get to know the genre and category before I dive in. Once I start writing, though, I imagine I'll cut myself off a little more strictly.

I'm curious, though—do you read books similar to your WIPs while you're drafting? What are your thoughts? 

Twitter-sized bite:

Do you read books similar to your WIPs while drafting? Join the discussion on @Ava_Jae's blog. (Click to tweet)

Vlog: How to Handle Foreshadowing

What is foreshadowing and how do you include it in your manuscript? Today I talk about how I handle it in my own work.

RELATED LINKS: 

• INTO THE BLACK Pre-Order Campaign Info!
• 4 Places to Find Critique Partners (vlog)
• How to Make Writer Friends with Lily Meade (vlog)
• 4 Mistakes I Made as a New Writer (vlog)
• CPs vs Betas (vlog)

How do you handle foreshadowing in your WIPs?

Twitter-sized bite:

Want to add foreshadowing to your WIP but not sure where to start? @Ava_Jae shares some tips. (Click to tweet)

INTO THE BLACK Pre-Order Campaign!

So my second novel, Into the Black, will be out in just over month! Which is...really weird to think about, but also really exciting because I love this book to bits. And I have some exciting news about Into the Black, namely—there are goodies for pre-orders!

If you pre-order Into the Black from any store in any format before 11/14/17 and have a US mailing address (I'm sorry international friends, truly I wish shipping weren't so expensive), you will get:

• Signed, very pretty bookplates for both Into the Black and Beyond the Red (unless you only want one, which is fine). The bookplates are different for each book and I'd show you a picture except I don't have them yet so you will have to just trust that they are pretty because they are.


• Into the Black and Beyond the Red bookmarks (again, unless you only want the one, which is fine!). These are also very pretty if I do say so myself. 


• A personalized post card with a note from me to you. 

So many things! I'm super psyched to get these goodies out to everyone and also share this book. It's near and dear to my heart and I hope you guise love it as much as I do. 

To make things easy for you, here is a sample of links you can pre-order Into the Black from: 

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-a-Million | IndieBound | Powell's | Trident Booksellers and Café

Also! If you haven't read Beyond the Red yet, but are curious about Into the Black, that's cool! Beyond the Red's paperback releases on Halloween (which is a pretty cool release date, not gonna lie) and there will be a sneak peek at Into the Black at the end of the paperback. You can get that in many places as well, such as:

Barnes & Noble | Amazon | Books-a-Million | IndieBound  

So that about covers it! I hope you guise are as excited as I am, and I look forward to putting together pre-order goodies for everyone! 

So I've pre-ordered, how do I get the goodies?

Glad you asked! Just e-mail your receipt and mailing address to avalonjaedra @ gmail on or before 11/13/17 at midnight EST. That's it! 

Hooray!

Twitter-sized bite:

INTO THE BLACK is almost here & you can get signed bookplates, bookmarks & more for pre-ordering! (Click to tweet)

Vlog: On Shiny New Idea Syndrome

So you're in the middle of a first draft, struggling to get words down, when suddenly you get this AWESOME idea for another book. Today I'm talking about Shiny New Idea Syndrome and how I generally handle it.

RELATED VLOGS: 

• Writing When You Don't Want To
• How to Break Through Writer's Block
• The Secret to Writing

How do you handle Shiny New Idea Syndrome? 

Twitter-sized bites:

What do you do w/ a new MS idea while drafting another WIP? @Ava_Jae talks Shiny New Idea Syndrome in today's vlog. (Click to tweet)