Huge Little Things

This isn’t some kind of jumbo shrimp post—I won’t be writing about oxymorons here. Instead, it’s been one of those days where I feel there’s so much hope, that there’s a reason I’m not giving up on my dream. It’s all these things that should be little but feel HUGE, like when you’re having a bad day and someone says that one right thing that makes you laugh.

For starters, today’s #MSWL on Twitter. Agents post their manuscript wish lists, telling us writers exactly what they’re looking for. Some of their wishes are so specific that I wonder how anyone would ever think to write them…and then there are the wishes that make me catch my breath, bite my lip, and force myself to breathe calmly. My time for Twittering (as my husband calls it) was limited today—the whole paying job thing getting in the way of my fledgling writing career—but around lunchtime I came across one request that made me think, “OMG. THAT’S MY BOOK.” Part of me wanted to run home and reread my query one last time and email it out. Another part of me whispered, “Wait.” It’s not time, not yet. Plus, I can always tuck in a note about #MSWL when I’m ready and actually send my query.

I may not have had time to stalk the #MSWL feed, but one of my critique partners did. He sent me a short message to check out an agent’s tweets. I did…and caught my breath, bit my lip, and forced myself to breathe calmly. Yes, she asked for my MS. Okay, she didn’t ask specifically for my MS, but all the things in her one tweet match my MS. I stowed her name away for later, when I’m ready. This is why I love my CPs, when they do little things like this that remind me we’re in this together and we’ll do what it takes for each other to reach our goal.

And then another CP sent me an email. She finished my latest MS and said, “I can’t believe you ended it that way!!!” Then she assured me that her reaction is a good thing. AND THAT’S A GOOD THING. There’s nothing better than a CP who loves your ending…except maybe and agent and a publisher that love it.

One more huge little thing? A YA writer whose books I love followed me today on Twitter. She’s only the second author to do this. I don’t know how they find me or why they decide to follow me, but I love it. I have to resist the urge to tweet them and tell them which of their books I love best and why. I have to ACT NATURAL, which is tough for me—I’m the girl who runs around in circles shouting my news to anyone who’ll listen when something good happens. Of course, there aren’t many flavorists who read YA, so it was easy not to shout this news. Still, I shared with my friends and family on Facebook.

It’s all these little pieces of hope that keep me going even on other, rougher days, like the ones where I want to chuck my computer in the fire and watch it burn, taking all my manuscripts with it. I don’t chuck my computer, can’t, and not just because my fireplace runs on gas. I know that even though on most days this dream seems impossible, it’s still possible. There are all these huge little things that prove it.

You're Writing WHAT?

My husband and I had dinner with cousins last night. It was the first time we’d seen them since our wedding last May and we had a lot to talk about. At some point, the conversation turned to my writing. Though I write this blog and tell them about it on Facebook all the time, not many of my family members read it. So for my cousins I started at the beginning, about querying and the requests I got, about my newest novel and the contests I’ve entered, about my critique group and my next shot at querying.

My cousins had so many questions and were so supportive. They wanted to know everything and wanted to make sure I continue going for my dream, even after my failures. I assured them I’m not giving up. I’ll keep doing this as long as it takes, no matter how many novels it takes. I loved their enthusiasm and encouragement.

Not everyone I tell about my writing is like my cousins. Some look at me like I’m crazy, some like I’m wasting my time.  When they ask questions, they aren’t enthusiastic and they don’t sound encouraging. I feel like I have to defend myself when I’m talking to these people, like I’m in a hostile police interview where the police are convinced I’m guilty even though I know I’m innocent. Things only get worse when I explain what I’ve written. I can see it in their eyes as I say the words young adult science fiction. It’s like they’re thinking, “You’re writing what?!”

Sometimes in these situations I try and convince these people that what I’m doing is exciting and worth it. It’s my dream, I try to tell them. I convince some, but not all. And sometimes, I don’t bother trying to defend myself. I let it go. I let them think what they will.

Because here’s the thing. They may not like young adult science fiction—hell, they might stop listening at young adult—but I LOVE IT. I wrote in my last post about the YA novels I love and why I love them. I also love writing. I’ve been doing it since elementary school and I’m not going to stop, no matter how this coming round of querying or the next one goes. I’ll write for myself if nothing else.

Some people think I’m crazy for doing this, but plenty don’t. Many of my family and friends are supportive. Last week, a coworker gave me an ad from a newspaper for the Mad Anthony Writers Conference near Cincinnati. Though the conference was more for non-fiction and adult crime/mystery novels, I thanked my coworker. She wanted to help me and I was so grateful for that. For all she knew, it could have been perfect for me—it could have been the turning point. She gave me the ad because believes I can achieve my dream.

I think that’s the most important thing for others to understand about what I’m doing. THIS IS MY DREAM and the best thing they can do is support me while I go for it. Compared to what I’m doing day in and out for my dream, their supportive part is easy. So, thank you, all of you who’ve supported me through this. I know what it’s like to be on the hard end of chasing a dream, so I’ll support you while you go for yours, whatever they may be.

My Favorite YA Novels

Yesterday, I bought Kasie West’s SPLIT SECOND. This week, I’ve been reading Marissa Meyer’s SCARLET. Both of these YA novels are sequels to others that I love and I’m so excited about both (and about CRESS, which is sitting on my bookshelf waiting for me to finish SCARLET). It’s novels like these that make me love YA and make me want to tell everyone I know READ THIS! With that in mind, I’d like to share some of my favorites and why I love them. They’re in no particular order other than I’m starting with the two I’ve already mentioned.

CINDER by Marissa Meyer

A Pitch Mars mentor told me to read this. She said it’s science fiction with humor, hinting that I should add humor to my own science fiction manuscript. I was skeptical. The jacket said it was about androids and cyborgs, which I typically don’t like. Still, if a Pitch Wars mentor tells you to do something, you do it. The first few pages were rough, but after that I was hooked. It’s a retelling of Cinderella (and I wrote in my post The Magic of DOON & The Booksellers how much I love fairy tales), but with twists that you don’t see coming, twists that make it fresh and tense and exhilarating. Well, okay, there was one twist I saw coming, but Marissa Meyer did an awesome job of weaving it into the story. I loved it so much that I was disappointed when SCARLET didn’t start with Cinder. But no worries—SCARLET is just as good and Cinder’s in there, too.

PIVOT POINT by Kasie West

I wrote a post called PIVOT POINT and Subplots about how much I love this novel. The main character can see two possible futures, but can’t compare them with one another and therefore can’t see the danger arising in one that’ll affect the other. It made me wish I could shout things at the main character, warn her of what I knew was coming, but we all know I couldn’t do that. All I could do was read, watch it unfold, and hope that the ending was satisfying. It was more satisfying than I could have hoped for. Even better, it has a sequel.

DOON by Carey Corp & Lorie Langdon

I read this recently and wrote the post The Magic of DOON & The Booksellers. If you want to know why I love it so much, check out that post.

17 & GONE by Nova Ren Suma

This one’s dark and twisty, two of my favorite things in a novel. Dead girls follow the main character, talk to her, watch her. I wanted to know from the first pages why and how the dead girls were there and loved how Nova Ren Suma wove the plot to show us the answers to my questions. I won’t tell you a thing—I didn’t see it coming and was all the more shocked because of it—hoping you’ll read it and discover for yourself.

THE 5TH WAVE by Rick Yancey

What would it be like if aliens took over Earth? How would they do it? If there’s any creepier answer than Rick Yancey’s, I can’t imagine it. The takeover is stealthy and devastating and happens before the novel begins. The main characters are some of the last humans and they’re fighting to survive, hoping the enemy won’t find them. There’s also a love story, darker than any I’ve read in a long time, with a twist I hoped wasn’t coming but loved when it did.

BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver

This was my first favorite YA novel. It reminds me a little of the movie Groundhog Day, but there’s nothing funny about it. The main character dies at the end of the day, then relives it, then dies again, then relives it again. To be honest, I hated the main character at the end of the first day—she’s a stereotypical mean girl. By the end of the novel, I was hoping that she’d live, that like in Groundhog Day she’d just keep reliving her day until she got it right. The story’s beautiful and sad. I don’t cry easily, but the sixth day broke my heart.

THE SUMMER I TURNED PRETTY by Jenny Han

What girl doesn’t dream of a summer romance at a beach house? What girl wouldn’t want two guys fighting over her? This novel was everything I wish I’d had one summer when I was a teenager.

BURN FOR BURN and FIRE WITH FIRE by Jenny Han & Siobhan Vivian

If I’d had a chance to get revenge on people in high school who treated me like shit, I’d have taken it…maybe. The three main characters in these books take that chance, each with their own vendetta, each with their own person to hate. They band together to make these people pay, but of course things go horribly wrong. By the end of the second book, I was desperate for the next one. The only reason I’m okay with waiting for ASHES TO ASHES is that I follow both authors on Twitter and have read about the struggle they’re having to end it right.

DAUGHTER OF SMOKE & BONES and DAYS OF BLOOD & STARLIGHT by Laini Taylor

The main character’s voice had me hooked from the first page of the first novel. It’s about a girl who lives with demons, an angel who follows her, and the mystery of who and why she is. It’s been so long since I read these that I can’t tell you more for fear I’ll reveal crucial plot points. The third book comes out soon and I can’t wait to reread both of these before then.

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein

Of all the novels I’ve written about here, this one was the hardest to start for me. I think the issue is that it’s British and a bit more dense than typical YA. Still, once I got into it, I couldn’t put it down. It’s WWII and a teenage girl spy from Britain is being tortured by Nazis to find out what she knows. She’s doing everything she can to protect her country and her best friend without regard to what that means for her and the torture. The twist in this book is so shocking that I actually cried. It was perfect and haunting and I won’t say more.

STOLEN by Lucy Christopher

A girl is kidnapped and taken to the outback of Australia, where she’s alone with her kidnapper, a guy not much older than she is. The relationship between the girl and her kidnapper is what drives this story and kept me reading. I didn’t know how I wanted the story to end. Even when it did, I wasn’t sure what to think.

THE NAME OF THE STAR and THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH by Maureen Johnson

If I had a chance to live in London, I’d take it. So does the main character in these novels. The problem is, there’s a man out there recreating the infamous Ripper murders and the main character is a witness. It’s dark, contemporary, and yet…I won’t say more about the plot, mostly because I didn’t know what I was getting into when I read these and I don’t want to spoil anything for you. I will say, however, that I loved THE MADNESS UNDERNEATH more than the first book because of the love story and what happens in the end.

THE TRAGEDY PAPER by Elizabeth LaBan

Speaking of haunting endings, here’s one. The title gives you a pretty good idea what the end is like…except it doesn’t. The story has already happened when the novel begins, though the main character doesn’t know the details. Another character leaves him CDs on which those events are described—an accidental romance and the inevitable events that followed. Adding more power and atmosphere to the story is the setting, a boarding school in the winter. What really is a tragedy? I still wonder this and wonder how I feel about this novel’s end.

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson

I don’t have a sister, so I don’t know what it’s like to lose one…but Jandy Nelson writes this so well that she makes me feel as though do. My favorite thing is the notes the main character writes and leaves everywhere in her house, outside, at school. It’s been a long time since I read this (if I had the time, I’d read this and all my other favorites again), but one of the most beautiful moments is when another character shows the main character that he’s been collecting her notes, pieces of her, and saving them for himself.

Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

There are six books in this series (the fifth of which is my favorite) so I won’t list them here. The main character is a teenage girl who goes to a secret spy high school to train for grown up life as a spy. She’s also got a mystery guy who always seems to save her when she needs it most. I love the main character’s voice, her friends, the adventures, and the whole idea of a secret life.

Wow, that’s a longer list than I anticipated. I’ll stop now. Thing is, I love so many. I used to read more adult novels than YA, but in the last couple of years my tastes have changed. I write YA because I feel more connected to these stories than I’ve felt to most adult novels. Of course, there are exceptions. If you want to know more books that I like (or don’t), you can search me out on Goodreads. And I’m always looking for more reading suggestions. What YA (or adult) novels do you love? If I didn’t list them here, comment and let me know what they are. I’d love to read them.

The In-Between

Before I write anything on paper or type it on my computer, I play with the words in my head. If you ever catch me staring off into the distance, looking at something that isn’t there, I’m writing. I’ve latched onto an idea and I can’t let it go until I work out the words. This blog post is one of those times. I’ve thought about it for days, sitting in traffic, waiting my turn at the doctor’s office, compounding flavors.

Because of the days it’s taken me to word this right, because of the thoughts I’m putting here, this blog post will be more like a journal entry than any of my others. I don’t journal anymore, but I journaled for years. (And have just now been informed by Word that journaled isn’t a verb. Too bad. I’m keeping it here.)

The last time I was serious about putting my thoughts down for no one but myself, I was living in Paris. I was passport-less and trapped in a city of dreams. That was years ago. More recently, I turned those journal entries into a novel. It took a few months to write it and another few months to revise. I queried that novel, but nothing came of it.

I should feel something about that nothing…but I don’t. I’ve written other novels, one of which I queried years ago to no avail. I also see failed experiences as just that—experience. I’ve learned a lot since I began writing that Paris novel. I learned even more since I gave it up. I learned that I won’t give up my dream, even after another failure. I can’t.

As the last days of my last query experience waned, I began entering another novel in writing contests. You can read past blog posts if you want to know how that went, but I probably don’t need to tell you I didn’t get what I wanted out of the experience.

Or did I? Though I didn’t make it far in those contests, I made many writer friends. I also found a critique partner and my critique partner group. Since I met my CPs, I’ve given up contests. This sounds more impressive than it is. (Or maybe it doesn’t.) It’s easy to give up contests when there aren’t any. It’s also easy when you’re so busy that sometimes you forget to have fun.

I have a cousin who goes to a private high school. She’s prepping to get into the college of her dreams so she can go on to med school and become a doctor. She’s driven, dedicated, and will make her dream come true. Still, I remind her to have fun. High school only comes round once and she has to cherish it.

I feel this same way about my writing experiences. I say that in the midst of all this CP work that I’ve forgotten to have fun, but that’s not true. For someone like me, words are fun. What more is there than words? I love to dive into a story, mine or someone else’s, and dig deep for those words that’ll make the story exceptional, irresistible. I’m wrapped so tightly into my CPs’ stories and my own that I dream I’m inside them. In my waking hours when I’m not at work, I’m here at my computer, reading and writing words. I don’t like to tear myself away from them. In fact, when one of my CPs mentioned she’s working on another story, I told her I wanted to read it. I told her I’d beg if I had to.

I’m so wrapped up in our stories that I almost lose sight of my dream, our goal. I’m helping them revise so they can query and get an agent. The same for them with my story. No matter, I tell myself—that goal is so far away that it doesn’t matter. Because we’re in a group, it takes us awhile to get through our chapters. I revel in this. Revising is easy, relaxing, and helps me forget that at some point I won’t be revising anymore. I’ll be querying.

I cringe when I read those words. I’d like to hide in this in-between forever. I like where am I, reading and writing words, pretending that this is all there is. Here, hope is perpetual because it’s always in the future. Here, there is no waiting for emails, no stalking my phone for news in my inbox. Here, there’s no rejection. I could stay here forever if it weren’t for my dream. I’ll have to tear myself away from revisions someday, but today’s not that day. Today, I’m going to revise a few of my words and read some revisions a CP sent me. When I’m finished with that, I’m going to pick up a book and delve into someone else’s words. I’ll stay here, in this in-between, for as long as I can.

Dream Agent

I hesitate to call this blog post what I am. I’ve heard many writers use this phrase and I’ve read posts about those that sign with their dream agents. The last time I queried, I didn’t give much thought to my dream agent. There were some agents that I loved, some that I liked, some that I wished I could find out more about, but there was never that one that I wanted more than any others.

When one of my critique partners started emailing me about her dream agent, I had to ask her who it was. She emailed me the name and I got to researching. Turns out, her dream agent sounds perfect for her manuscript for so many reasons that I can’t put here. I could see my CP and that agent sitting down together, cups of coffee in their hands, talking for hours on end. I can picture that agent loving my CP’s MS. Does that mean my CP will get her dream agent? I don’t know. I hope so. Still, it’s got me thinking.

I haven’t started researching agents for my newest MS so I don’t know how many agents out there might sound perfect for it, but often I think that I don’t have a dream agent. I’ve queried on and off for years with two different books and haven’t had an overwhelming success (obviously, since I’m not represented/published). There are some days where I think that any agent who likes my MS and wants to represent me would be amazing.

Part of my problem is that every time I research an agent, I think that agent could be THE ONE. She likes to do this or he’s a fan of that TV show or this sports team. She’s represented these books that I love or he says that he’s actively seeking what sounds exactly like my MS. This is good for me because I’m never crushed when I get a rejection. (Okay, that might be a little lie—I’m always some degree of crushed when I get a rejection. What writer isn’t?) It’s also good for me because it means I never fail to find some personal note to put in the query that’ll hopefully attract the agent’s attention. Of course, it’s also bad because it means there’s never that one agent that I can call my dream agent.

I feel like it’s expected that every writer has a dream agent. For you writers reading this, is it expected that you have a dream agent? Do you? What does it mean if I don’t? What if I’m going to be so thrilled when any agent represents me that it won’t matter if I’d pegged him/her as my dream agent from the start?

I’m saying all this before I’ve researched YA science fiction agents. There could be one agent that I want more than any others…but what happens when that agent rejects me? How do writers feel when their dream agents don’t want their books? What if they queried those agents first? Where does that leave them? I’ve never read posts about the writers that get rejected by their dream agents so I don’t know the answers to any of these questions—I’m just putting them out there.

I have no answers in general about the dream agent idea, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep thinking about it as I get closer and closer to polishing my MS and to the time when I’ll query. Who knows—maybe I’ll find a dream agent and that agent will want to represent me.

The Ever-Expanding List of Thank You

I’ve taken to reading the acknowledgements at the ends of novels. At first, I wanted to see what agents represented what books. I was searching for literary agencies I hadn’t found in other places and, if the book was similar to mine, for a comparison title I could use in my query. However, the more I read acknowledgements, the more I realized the number of people involved in making one book possible.

My own list of people who’ve helped me has been growing…and growing and growing. Though I haven’t queried yet, what if an agent doesn’t pick up my book, it doesn’t get published, and I don’t get to thank all the people who’ve helped me make it this far? Even worse, what if the time comes for me to write acknowledgements and I FORGET SOMEONE SUPER IMPORTANT??? Not to mention how thankful I’ve been these last few months for so many people.

So I’m going to make a list here, partly to help me remember and partly just to say thank you. Seriously, THANK YOU. I’m a writer, so you’d think I’d be more eloquent than that, but THANK YOU is the only way I know how to cover everything these people have done for me. In my list I’ll do what I always do—if it’s someone anyone could find on a blog or website, I’ll include the person’s name; if it’s someone not everyone would know, I won’t add the name since y’all will know who you are anyway.

MY FRIENDS & FAMILY: These people know me and have been incredibly patient with me in the last few months. I’ve been a hermit with an internet connection and they haven’t held that against me. My husband’s been the most understanding of them all, though I’m still waiting for the day when he rips my computer from my hands and throws it across the room just so I’ll hear what he’s saying.

WRITER’S DIGEST: It was an email from Writer’s Digest over the summer that motivated me to get serious again about trying to find an agent and publish my book(s). I took a class Writer’s Digest offered—an agent one-on-one class—in which two agents taught me more about getting an agent than I’d figured out on my own in years.

AGENTS: When I was querying one of my manuscripts last fall, most of the rejections I received were form letters. I also received a couple of personalized replies…and I loved those. (Yes, I know it’s weird to love a rejection.) They told me what specifically led them to reject me, who else I might query, and other details I won’t share here. Maybe it’s weird to say thank you to agents who rejected me (maybe this whole blog post is weird), but their personal rejections gave me hope, which is never to be underestimated when querying.

TWITTER WRITING COMMUNITY: They’re the people who participate in contests and cheer me on as I cheer them on. They’re the ones who retweeted me when I did a pitch party. They answer questions when I have them and chat with me about some things that help with my writing and some things that don’t. I can’t begin to put names here because they’re so many.

CONTEST HOSTS & THEIR BLOGS: I’ve learned so much and met so many writers while doing these contests, all of which wouldn’t have been possible if it weren’t for the hosts. Some of these I discovered through Twitter and some from blogs. The best contests I’ve found and the best blogs I follow belong to Authoress, Brenda Drake, and Michelle Hauck. If you’re thinking about doing one of their contests, DO IT. You’ll love it.

MY CPs: These people are amazing. Beyond amazing. They let me read their writing so that we can improve together. They’re the ones who find my mistakes—big and small—and tell me how to fix them…or just make fun of me for them, which is even better. They’re the first ones I go to…and the last ones I go to. I owe them all a drink, an ARC, and so much more.

Fear & Bravery

I’ve been reading Veronica Roth’s DIVERGENT and INSURGENT the last few days. Of all the themes in her story, the ones that stick to me most are bravery and fear and how they’re so intertwined. In DIVERGENT, the main character has to have enough bravery to face her fears before she becomes an adult in society’s eyes. Then there’s war, which brings in another level of fear and bravery. For the sake of this blog post, the rest of the story is irrelevant—but that doesn’t mean I don’t like the books. If you’re interested in YA dystopian stories, or even if you’re not, I recommend reading them. I’m obsessed with them. I read INSURGENT in about twenty-four hours because I had to know what fear drove the entire plot.

This has gotten me thinking about my own fears. Right off, four big ones come to mind (although if I were a character in DIVERGENT, I’m sure I’d have the average of ten to fifteen fears). The first three may be relatively normal.

FIRE: When I was in elementary school, some fire safety people (who may have been firefighters for all my traumatized childhood mind remembers) brought in burned items to help with their demonstration. I think their burned items were supposed to encourage us to stop, drop, and roll among other things, but what I remember most is the burned teddy bear. I remember its charred fur and melted eyes and mouth and the grimace on its face. I’ve been scared of fire ever since.

WATER: I can’t tell you where this fear comes from, but I know I don’t like water, especially when it’s opaque and especially at night. I had nightmares the first night I stayed in Venice because we’d arrived after dark and walked around the city. I don’t like lakes and really don’t like the ocean. I’m leaving this at that.

DEATH: Mine and others and the ways it can happen. Not to say I’ve ever experienced anything like what the main character in DIVERGENT and INSURGENT goes through, but read those books for more on this.

And then there’s my fourth fear. It’s not so normal, at least for the average person, but I’d bet it’s huge among my writer friends.

NO AGENT, NO PUBLISHED BOOK, NOT EVER: I’ve been writing for as long as I can remember. I’ve been trying to find an agent since college, though only in the last few months have I learned enough that I feel like I might really have a shot at this. Still, there’s no guarantee that I’ll sign with an agent, no guarantee that I’ll ever have a book published. And that scares me, not quite the way my other fears do, but in a way can wrench my gut and leave me breathless.

Beyond this huge writer fear, I have a couple of others. I had them in college, but it wasn’t until I found and starting working with my CPs that I realized how much they’re a factor in my daily writing life.

MY CPs COMMENTS ON MY WRITING: I was spoiled by my first CP—she loved my manuscript and still has more confidence in its chances for success than pessimistic me. Still, I was terrified to read her comments. What if she hated it? What if she wanted me to rewrite the whole thing because there was some huge plot hole or bad plot line? However, her suggestions were mostly minor, and that was good for me, though it hasn’t rid me of my fear. My fear comes back again every time I get comments back from someone in my CP group. I let those emails pile up until I’m crushed by the weight of them.

MY COMMENTS ON MY CPs WRITING: What if I’m too harsh? What if I don’t tell them enough? What if—and yes, this has happened—I tell them their stories would be so much better if they rewrote the first five chapters? (See my post Let’s NOT Start at the Very Beginning for more on that.) Even worse, because I love what my CPs write, what if despite all my comments, despite all my help and all our efforts, they don’t get an agent either? I want my CPs’ books to be published because I want other readers to love them as much as I do.

What the main character is DIVERGENT and INSURGENT keeps learning over and over again is that despite her fears, she has to keep going. She has to be brave in any way she knows how because she doesn’t have any other choice. This is true for me, too. I have fears about writing, about my CPs, about never finding an agent, but that doesn’t mean I stop. It means I push through the fears and keep going in hopes that someday all this will pay off.

The Curse of Dialogue Tags

One of my Pitch Wars mentors told me in her rejection letter that dialogue tags were one of my writing weaknesses. You’d think I’d have learned my lesson. I thought I had—until one of my critique partners pointed them out in one of my chapters. I’d gone back through my manuscript after Pitch Wars and removed the ones that stuck out to me, but either I missed some or I’m blind to them until someone else points them out. A third option is that I have a dialogue tag curse that puts these things back into my MS when I close it for the night. Yes, true, that’s not likely.

Those of you who don’t write may be asking what a dialogue tag is. The explanation is simple. When a character says something, dialogue tags are what appear outside the quotation marks, like he said, she cried, I demanded, you told me, etc.

You might next be wondering what the big deal is. A quick answer is that when dialogue tags are used correctly, they give information the reader doesn’t already know or they blend in so well that the reader doesn’t even notice them. When I’m reading, my mind tends to skip over the he said, she said tags. A more in depth answer is…well, I don’t really know. I have issues with them, remember?

I think my dialogue tags issues are rooted in my middle and high school creative writing exercises. I remember one teacher emphasizing that you can’t always use he said, she said. She gave us a variety of other tags and made us use them in our writing. Didn’t this make my writing better? Yes and no.

Yes: Sometimes you need to say something other than he said. An example of this is if you want to give the reader some idea of the emotion behind what a character is saying—assuming it isn’t conveyed in the words.

No: The tags that aren’t he said stick out if they’re used too much or improperly. Sometimes the reader doesn’t need help getting the emotion behind the character’s words and he said works just fine. Another example is that if a character curses within the dialogue, you don’t add a dialogue tag that says he cursed.

No: Sometimes, the reader doesn’t need a dialogue tag at all if the reader can tell who’s speaking. Two characters can carry on a dialogue-tag-less conversation that lasts half a page if you tell the reader who says the first line. This helps the flow of the dialogue and sucks the reader into the characters’ words.

No: There are places were the dialogue needs something else, but not a tag. Sometimes, it’s better to show what the characters are doing or what’s going on around them.

I don’t normally do this—because for all I know, this is a BAD idea—but I want to show you an example. Here’s part of the scene from my MS where my CP pointed out my dialogue tags. I’m going to paste it twice—first, the way my CP saw it; second, the way it is now after my CP’s comments and my corrections. I’ve put the bad dialogue tags in bold.

“You aren’t going,” my father declared. I’d seen his stern face before, but there was something different, harder, about it this time. He snatched my sleeping bag off my bed and stalked into the hallway.

                “Come on, Dad.” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone’s going.”

                “And if everyone jumped off –”

                “Seriously?” I cut him off, anger springing into my voice as I wrenched my sleeping bag from his hand. “You’re going to try that cliché?”

                “Hazel,” he answered, his voice low and warning, “it’s not safe."

                “Safe? Safe! Dad, it’s not like there are going to be boys there. There won’t be any unprotected sex, I promise.”

                “Hazel!” he shouted, shocked.

 

              “You aren’t going.”

   I’d seen my father’s stern face before, but there was something different, harder, about it this time. He snatched my sleeping bag off my bed and stalked into the hallway.

                “Come on, Dad.” I rolled my eyes. “Everyone’s going.”

                “And if everyone jumped off –”

                “Seriously?” Anger sprang into my voice as I wrenched my sleeping bag from his hand. “You’re going to try that cliché?”

                “Hazel.” His voice was low, a warning. “It’s not safe.”

                “Safe? Safe! Dad, it’s not like there are going to be boys there. There won’t be any unprotected sex, I promise.”

                “Hazel!”

So what’s my point? Dialogue tags are important and I’ve gone back through my MS. But more than that, my point is that no matter how long I keep doing this, I learn something new ALL THE TIME—and I keep learning these things over and over and over again. First, my Pitch Wars mentor (who didn’t pick me) pointed out my dialogue tags. Then, one of my other CPs mentioned her Pitch Wars mentor (who picked her) wasn’t happy with her tags. And then, my CP commented on my tags in this scene.

Writing a novel and prepping it for agents (and ultimately publication) is a process. It takes a long time. There may never been an end to the changes you can make. Still, you keep going. You learn something, fix things, learn something again, and fix them again. It doesn’t matter how long it takes because it’s about getting there in the end—and I will get there.