"Old" People Writing for Teens V

Smiley0501 said:

Becca, any word from your agent?

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Just to ask me to send the MS in a different format, lol. I don't have Word on my new laptop and it's soooooo expensive so I've been sending stuff to her as PDFs but now apparently Adobe made my PDFs unreadable for her So I'll have to use my boyfriend's computer in the future. Sigh.

But her saying she needed a different file to read it means she's reading it now! She said just a few "petty edits" left to do... hopefully won't be too much, since I cleaned up a lot of stuff in the past few passes.

Huzzah!

And format screw ups between Open Office and Word are the bane of my existence. We should march Microsoft against the wall and have them shot.

...and standardize formats. But first, firing squad.

mellymel said:

I just feel that I'm playing lotto and it's a matter of hitting all the right numbers on the right day. The chances are insane--even if you are a great writer and have a great query. You have to get the right agent, at the right moment, who just so happens to be looking for the very thing you are querying. And then, it has to have just the kind of voice and tone and writing they eat up. It's a crap shoot

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I had a published author help me through writing my last manuscript. She told me over and over again how great my writing was, how great the story was etc, but every time it was tempered with something along the lines of...but just remember if no one wants to publish it, it doesn't mean the writing is bad, it might not be what that person is looking for or it might be just that that person is having a bad day. I'm not sure that makes it any easier but I did try to keep that in mind each time I queried. It is like playing lotto though, which sucks, because we've all put some much time and love into our work and it deserves more of a chance than hoping that it gets to the right person at the right time.

KiwiLady said:

I had a published author help me through writing my last manuscript. She told me over and over again how great my writing was, how great the story was etc, but every time it was tempered with something along the lines of...but just remember if no one wants to publish it, it doesn't mean the writing is bad, it might not be what that person is looking for or it might be just that that person is having a bad day. I'm not sure that makes it any easier but I did try to keep that in mind each time I queried. It is like playing lotto though, which sucks, because we've all put some much time and love into our work and it deserves more of a chance than hoping that it gets to the right person at the right time.

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Yes, not only that, I read somewhere that about 80% of queries are immediately tossed out for either poor writing/bad grammar/non-represented genre/too long/not addressed to specific agent/doesn't meet some particular guideline/they currently rep something too similar/other. Now, I've been writing queries for a while and (even though I hate writing them) I know I've got this query writing thing down: been through QLH or my private writing group, has punch, has voice, tells my story in 250 words or less. It frustrates me to think that I know I have a better chance than at least 80% of the queries they receive on a daily basis and yet, I still continue to get form Rs. And it leaves me shaking my head, especially when it's someone who, on their website, says it's a genre they represent. But even if it says it's what they rep, it doesn't mean it's what they are specifically looking for on their wish list. The whole process is so confounding sometimes.

Becca C. said:

Just to ask me to send the MS in a different format, lol. I don't have Word on my new laptop and it's soooooo expensive so I've been sending stuff to her as PDFs but now apparently Adobe made my PDFs unreadable for her So I'll have to use my boyfriend's computer in the future. Sigh.

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Maybe try Apache OpenOffice. I have heard of some formatting issues, but I've never seen them first-hand before. You can save to a MS Word .doc easily and it's free

Becca C. said:

Just to ask me to send the MS in a different format, lol. I don't have Word on my new laptop and it's soooooo expensive so I've been sending stuff to her as PDFs but now apparently Adobe made my PDFs unreadable for her So I'll have to use my boyfriend's computer in the future. Sigh.

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What do you write with? AFAIK every modern WP software (and Scrivener) can export to .DOC format, which is pretty much the de facto standard.

I think readability isn't her issue with PDF (unless she reads MS on her phone). Inserting notes and comments is.

I've debating switching to Open Office because I hate Windows. Hubby's trying to convince me to switch to Linux, but I'm scared of formatting screw-ups if I leave my Word behind.

JFitchett92 said:

So I've been plotting this horror short in my head (about the murderous schoolgirl) and it's going places, but it feels really flat. It's got a real "one thing leads to another" feel, where with every action there's a consequence, but I'm trying to make my MC come to life. I never had this issue with Silver Linings, they literally came to life right away, so I don't know how to rectify it.

I'm hoping to work on the draft during NaNo, whilst working on my edits on my other MS every other day. I have got a week off coming up where there will (hopefully) be lots of time to get work done.

@paintitreadbooks, My wife is very encouraging with my writing, but your husband takes it to a whole new level! I suppose some might say you're lucky there

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Hear, hear on your hubby paintitred! Mine is very encouraging, but isn't to the "don't quit your day job" point yet. I think if I didn't have 70k in student loans he would be, though. That's a lot of money I need to earn back before I can leap into the wild!

JF, have you tried a character interview? I've done them before to bring a flat character to life. Stuff like which hand do they write with, how do they hold a pen, what order do they shampoo/bathe in the shower? I found a list of questions if you're interested. It could help find those little details that make a character pop.

Stiger05 said:

I've debating switching to Open Office because I hate Windows. Hubby's trying to convince me to switch to Linux, but I'm scared of formatting screw-ups if I leave my Word behind.

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I'm still using a computer that is several years old and running an obsolete Windows XP. I've installed Ubuntu on it but haven't had the time/mood to experience it. My next computer, if I can afford, will be a Mac. If I can't afford (or remain being cheap), I'll use linux. I'm done with Windows. But I started using computer from DOS. I can write Unix shell commands. I'm capable of adapting to any OS except new Windows.

Formatting isn't an issue. Non-Word word-processors can export to Word format. MS Word can be installed in a Linux box. Tell your hubby to make it happen or buy you a 27" iMac with Retina 5K display ^_^. (very envious of people who have hubbies, esp financially supportive ones >.<)

Zoombie said:

They need to be fucking queries. The regular kind won't do it.

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You made me smile. Smiling is awesome!

Becca C. said:

So I'll have to use my boyfriend's computer in the future. Sigh.

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Same here, but husband's. He totally doesn't mind because he's not glued to his computer like I am, but it's still a hassle!

Zoombie said:

Huzzah!

And format screw ups between Open Office and Word are the bane of my existence. We should march Microsoft against the wall and have them shot.

...and standardize formats. But first, firing squad.

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Uggh! Yes!

For those of you who commented that you can save your OpenOffice document as a .doc, yes that's true, but when you open it in Word the formatting is all screwed up. I have to go through and fix everything and it takes awhile. I'm good with doing it, because I understand that agents/publishers/editors want Word. It's sort of the status quo. But I own a copy of Word and it won't finish installing on my computer. It's a student version, so dollar signs aren't as massive, but still. I'd take it to get the computer fixed and load Word properly, but that would mean being without my baby for days or even weeks. Not a lot of computer repair shops in the Thumb of Michigan so wait times are atrocious. Sigh. I guess I'll just keep doing what I'm doing. Husband mentioned buying me a new computer, but I have this idea in my head that I don't want to spend money on something extra for me until I have an agent and maybe even a book deal. So maybe never.

I bit the bullet and got a Sony VAIO last year for my birthday. My old laptop (a Lenovo) just didn't cut it. I bought it new back in 2008 (on the cheap), but it was already obsolete and ran so slow. I was constantly afraid of losing my documents. I had to reinstall Windows on the VAIO a few months ago after the update to 8.1 screwed it up. Word is pretty much all I use my computer for, which is why I'm scared to abandon it. If Windows forces me to "upgrade" to 8.1 again, though, that's it. I'm switching to Linux, consequences be damned!

Bing, I'm very lucky to have a supportive Hubby! Financially and otherwise. My brother is writer too, journalist, I keep telling him he needs to find an engineer or doctor or something to marry so he can write, haha.

Saving in RTF will strip your document of everything (italics, formatting) so yeah, RTF will screw it up too. But in OpenOffice, when you save as a .doc, it saves things like italics but you lose page breaks, paragraph indents, headers and a lot of other stuff.

Zoombie said:

Do you know what you should learn from rejections?

TO SEND OUT MORE FUCKING QUERIES!

They need to be fucking queries. The regular kind won't do it.

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Well, of course. That's how they multiply and you get more of them.

I finally broke down and got a Mac at the beginning of the summer, and it was totally worth every penny. Sure, we'll be paying it off for some time, but I don't regret it one bit. Between all of my writing for school, and all of my personal writing, my husband insisted that I finally get something that didn't make me want to throw it across the room every time I used it. He was totally right!

I did get Word for Mac, and I have been using that, but Scrivener is giving a free trial of their program for Nano, and then once Nano is done, you get a coupon to purchase it for cheaper, so I have just downloaded that, but I haven't had a chance to really check it out yet since I've been so damn busy. Hopefully I will get a chance to check it out this weekend, and finally get some writing done!!!!

jtrylch13: Did you manually force a tab as paragraph indent or did you use Format Style?

I guess I'm among the lucky ones. I use Word 2000, which came bundled with a computer that is long dead. The software never expires and it installs flawlessly on any OS. It fires up instantly (cuz it's small.) It serves all my tasks (typing, review, synonym, say prayers for me when I curse). One day I'm gonna buy a fake diamond ring and tie it on the jewel case.

Stiger05 said:

JF, have you tried a character interview? I've done them before to bring a flat character to life. Stuff like which hand do they write with, how do they hold a pen, what order do they shampoo/bathe in the shower? I found a list of questions if you're interested. It could help find those little details that make a character pop.

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I'd completely forgotten about that! I've been doing it in my head with my characters from SL for the last 10 minutes and it's been kinda funny. If you could send over that list of questions in a PM or something that would be awesome! Thanks!

Bing Z said:

What do you write with? AFAIK every modern WP software (and Scrivener) can export to .DOC format, which is pretty much the de facto standard.

I think readability isn't her issue with PDF (unless she reads MS on her phone). Inserting notes and comments is.

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I write with Pages on a Mac. It can export to a .doc or .docx, but we've tried that and it doesn't come up as readable on her end. On my old laptop I had MS Word so the Pages export worked. I have no idea what's up, maybe I will try this Open Office thingamajig.

Zoombie said:

Do you know what you should learn from rejections?

TO SEND OUT MORE FUCKING QUERIES!

They need to be fucking queries. The regular kind won't do it.

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Considering I'm banging my head against a wall to get my query ready for QLH, my query probably thinks it's name is "my f'ing query" at this poing...

Stiger05 said:

Bing, I'm very lucky to have a supportive Hubby! Financially and otherwise. My brother is writer too, journalist, I keep telling him he needs to find an engineer or doctor or something to marry so he can write, haha.

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hehe my BF is an engineer, and he's always talking about how he would love to quit his job to go into my (far less lucrative) field. Clearly, if we'd ever get to a more serious situation, we've got this all wrong.

My new laptop arrived. It's so new and shiny, and I need to figure out how everything works. I might write my nano on the old laptop just to avoid the confusion. I have not written fresh, or edited, since I finished the last pass on the old SNI earlier this month. I feel so lazy.

Coffee - I hope you're ready to throw down during Nanowrimo.

Stiger05 said:

Bing, I'm very lucky to have a supportive Hubby! Financially and otherwise. My brother is writer too, journalist, I keep telling him he needs to find an engineer or doctor or something to marry so he can write, haha.

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Since I'm on my own, I rely on my editing business to keep me in the style to which I'd like to become accustomed. I profit shamelessly off the labour of hard-working writers.

Stiger05 said:

Bing, I'm very lucky to have a supportive Hubby! Financially and otherwise. My brother is writer too, journalist, I keep telling him he needs to find an engineer or doctor or something to marry so he can write, haha.

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Last time I heard, Matt Lauer (whom I dislike) called himself a journalist. He reportedly makes $21.5 million a year plus a chopper takes him from home to work. So your brother can have a lucrative future ahead of him. But if he is still pessimistic, I may be able to help by hacking into Parametric's iCloud/Google Drive for her fully dressed photos and address

Bing Z said:

Last time I heard, Matt Lauer (whom I dislike) called himself a journalist. He reportedly makes $21.5 million a year plus a chopper takes him from home to work. So your brother can have a lucrative future ahead of him. But if he is still pessimistic, I may be able to help by hacking into Parametric's iCloud/Google Drive for her fully dressed photos and address

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I'll be sure to tell him, Bing.

CoffeeBeans said:

Considering I'm banging my head against a wall to get my query ready for QLH, my query probably thinks it's name is "my f'ing query" at this poing...



hehe my BF is an engineer, and he's always talking about how he would love to quit his job to go into my (far less lucrative) field. Clearly, if we'd ever get to a more serious situation, we've got this all wrong.

My new laptop arrived. It's so new and shiny, and I need to figure out how everything works. I might write my nano on the old laptop just to avoid the confusion. I have not written fresh, or edited, since I finished the last pass on the old SNI earlier this month. I feel so lazy.

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Hubby is an engineer. He keeps saying I need to become the next JKR so he can quit and golf all day. I keep telling him he needs to climb the corporate ladder so I can quit and write all day. I think the latter is more possible, haha. Congrats on the new laptop! I can't believe your constraint. I had everything moved from my old to my new the night it came in.

Parametric said:

Coffee - I hope you're ready to throw down during Nanowrimo.

Since I'm on my own, I rely on my editing business to keep me in the style to which I'd like to become accustomed. I profit shamelessly off the labour of hard-working writers.

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That's awesome! I have this image of you as Ramses on a golden litter being carried by poor little writers. It may or may not have come from Bing's cloud hacking.

Stiger05 said:

That's awesome! I have this image of you as Ramses on a golden litter being carried by poor little writers. It may or may not have come from Bing's cloud hacking.

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I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of such a photo.

I'd carry your litter.

But only if you write a sequel to Frostbite.

Speaking of sequels, I've finally come up with the plot outline for Ghostshard (alternative title being Feyshard), which is important.

Cause I knew the plot to Titanshard (which I'm writing) and Starshard.

But Ghost/Feyshard is the book between those two.

It is about Mary Sues!

Zoombie said:

I'd carry your litter.

But only if you write a sequel to Frostbite.

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I already wrote that sequel, so I hope you're good at heavy lifting ...