Prequels and Sequels: Are Series More Successful?

The thought came to me the other day, as I was watching something... I can't remember exactly what I was watching, but I remember something that stood out to me.  I remember considering taking part of my novel and turning it into a prequel, and then followed by a series that I came up with a while ago.  The series was going to be a stand alone series based on a totally different storyline and in a different setting and everything.  However, one moment it hit me... BAM!  Why not tie all three together?  It seems to me that the most successful stories tend to be those told in a series of some kind.  I'm not saying that single, one-off, one-shot novels aren't successful, but I do see a trend and in the publishing business trends are important to take note of.

As a creative writer, we have to go with the flow of things and pump out those creative juices in large quantities and wrap it all in a nice little package for the masses to consume.  I'm not sure if mine will be too much of a mind trip for people to handle... it's a pretty trippy rabbit hole I'd be taking my readers down, but guaranteed to entertain I think.  Originally, I had a flashback sequence at the end of my story that took the reader back to relive the story but from another perspective in quick sequences.  I think this might be confusing however, and I've been thinking of ways to clean it up.

Well, I'm considering it and I love the idea especially since it gives me an opportunity to cut down that 100,000+ word count that I have now!  Yikes!  I know, I know, I get it from my mother... bless her heart!  Sometimes we can be a bit long winded.

It also gets me excited an enthusiastic about sitting down and writing again which is very important if you read any of my previous posts on motivation and inspiration.  I love the novel as it is, don't get me wrong, but I think it might work better if I take out some of the confusing bits and pieces that could stand alone as a prequel and help set up the story arch.  What I plan to do is to read the novel through once and then determine if it flows or not.

REJECTION!!!!

Every true writer experiences rejection of some kind or another.  I don't think the reality of writing would be as conscious for me if it were not for this part of the process, and we all go through it and you know I think if you take it in strides it can really make you a stronger writer.

So far I have received two rejection letters from two separate agencies.  Neither one of them provided any tips, pointers, advice, or anything really.  Just the generic, "thank you for submitting... we will not be accepting your work at this time... the decision making process it a difficult one... we thank you for submitting... etc. etc."

I would honestly prefer to have some constructive criticism and that way I walk away with something for my time.  Both agencies took longer than advertised to reply and longer than Writer's Market indicated in their books.  Patience, however, is a writer's greatest virtue I believe, and so I continued to wait.

Now, with rejection comes hope.  I am strangely excited that my work is being considered at all and has human eyeballs scanning the pages reading MY WORDS!!  Words by Nevada Wolf!  The other part is that I am aware of the luck factor involved in the submission process and perhaps I wasn't lucky this time around, but who knows.  I will submit to other agencies and one of them might happen to be going through something at the moment and my story may reach out to them and beckon them to invest in me as a new author.

The main thing I want you all to walk away with is never give up.  Keep writing.  Keep submitting.  Every writer that has a book on the shelf isn't necessarily the most "talented" and certainly not "perfect."  They just happen to give people what they want and need in that moment and in that time.  Some stories are timeless and touch every generation.  So let it come from your heart and no matter what... don't quit! I guarantee you your story will touch an audience and that audience will forever be YOUR audience.

Never Change YOUR Style

This came to me the other day as I was thinking about how competitive the writing market is.  When I thought about how competitive things are and how much agents and publishers would like for you to change some things to be more marketable, it occurred to me how easy it is to interpret that as changing your style.  Style is very important.  There really is no right or wrong; there are styles, preferences, and tastes.  Every book will have an audience.  There are some books out there on the shelves that I wonder how did they ever get published that other people absolutely LOVE and adore.  There are other books that are widely acclaimed and received that I just can't get into. 

My sister is an excellent storyteller.  She starts out with a hook to grab your interest so that whatever comes next, you are willing to sit through just to get to that end.  She throws in enough humor and drama to keep you entertained to the end.  My mother tends to be more long-winded in her stories and explanations and will exaggerate the truth of the actual occurrences to create drama to keep you interested, and most importantly she enjoys her own stories.  I tend to rush through things.  I am so excited about revealing the big twist and surprise at the end of my story that I rush through the details to get to the end.  My stories tend to be vivid and complex and provoke thought, and a lot of times I can easily lose my audience if I get too technical without the detailed explanations.

Now, if you gave my mother, sister, and I the same story to tell... we would each tell it in a different way.  We all share the memory of how our mother scared the crap out of us one Halloween when we were younger.  My mother's version involves us breaking rules and deserving a good scare.  My sister's version involves a note giving us permission to trick-or-treat, and our cunning mother switching off the electricity so that we'd be in complete darkness when we returned home.  My version involves me being the foolish hero and volunteering to inspect the thumping and bumping in the darkness and jumping ten feet back, knocking everyone over, when our mother finally revealed herself, face painted white, shouting "It's Halloween!"  The other details I would probably rush through to get to that point as I did in the previous sentence (a long one, I know).

I like to foreshadow, switch perspectives, and focus on relationships between characters.  I particularly don't believe in there being one "hero" because that, to me, is not realistic or as thrilling as the combining of forces and strengths to overcome obstacles and challenges... that's just my style.  Is it as marketable as the hero on a journey who comes into power?  Probably not, but the market is ever changing, and not to mention there's always the possibility that someone can come along and set a new standard in the market.

So here's the bottom line... stick to your style!  Write for your self!  If you love what you write then chances are others will too.  Will you have as many in your audience as J.K. Rowling or Stephen King?  Who knows.  Such thoughts can stop productivity and creativity.  If you immerse yourself in your world, then you will never be lost because you know your world like no other.  If they suggest changes... make the changes, but don't change your style.  Style separates you from everyone else.  How many times did Rowling get rejected?  How many times did Tolkien think people wouldn't read what he wrote?  But that never stopped them and they put a bit of themselves, as storytellers and as human beings, in every word... let us all do the same.

Now They Tell Me!

Okay, so back in December is when I submitted my various materials to these agencies for review.  I am almost 1,000% positive that at the time they preferred, no... required, SNAIL MAIL only.  Now, I go to their websites to check for any updating news and here's what a lot of them say now:

I hesitated about publishing this post, as agency secrets are best when kept, you know, secrets. Nonetheless, I decided that there was enough personal interest here to warrant filling in y'all weary (and wary) authors to a few suggestions. You may be asking yourself, "Should I email my query, or should I snail mail it?" Well, the answer is a resounding Email.  
(http://linnprentisliterary.blogspot.com/)

Now they tell me!  I worked really hard to print out all of those materials... chapters, query letters, synopsis, etc.  Revising them over and over and over and over again driving everyone insane who I had critique them (thanks Mom, Raqui, and Kia).  Now, it turns out I could've just emailed them... great!  No wonder they have not responded.  But still, if I sent a SASE with my submission then they should reply... or at least that would be the idea.

Sigh... oh well, I will have to call them and find out what is the fate of my materials... if they have been reviewed and replied to or if they're lying somewhere at the bottom of a waste basket.  Meanwhile the new job is going well except I'm not allowed to do what I specialize in.

But hey, I still have my buddy (my cat) Sam, my health, my Xbox 360, and Domino's Philly Cheese Steak Pizza... ah, ain't life grand?

Back In The Saddle

Whew... I don't know what has been going around lately but it sure got to me.  I caught a cold at the beginning of last week that totally knocked me out of commission for a few days.  I hadn't been sick in a long time (I even "knocked on wood" whenever I said that statement), but I figured I was about due for a cold.  Luckily for me it was just a cold and not the flu or anything.  I stayed in bed as much as possible watching episodes of Keeping Up With The Kardashians and as many movies as I could get my hands on.

Still no word yet from any of the agencies I submitted my query letter and materials to, but it is to be expected.  I will continue to be patient and hopeful.  I'm still waiting for the revision juice to flow back through me... I feel a bit burned out still especially now after having this cold. 

I still have a few agencies that I want to submit to, but first I wanted to see what the feedback might be from this first group.  I want to see if they all have the same feedback and maybe I just have some general changes to make or if the feedback will vary.

Does anyone know if agencies have more or less of a tendency to lose your materials if you submit them via email versus snail mail?  My concern about email submissions is of course junk mail filters.  I submitted via snail mail to three agencies but I did an email submission to one back in November and haven't heard anything since then.

Welcome To The New Year

Back to work, for those of us fortunate enough to have a job, and for those of us who are less fortunate it is back to job hunting.  Either way, we welcome a new year with new goals to accomplish.

At the beginning of every year I start a new journal.  I look back on my journals of 2009 and I see all of the things I'd set out to accomplish... the trials and tribulations.

One of my main goals was to finish my novel.  Now, in the past I'd said that every year... "This year I want to finish my novel by June... July... November," and so on and so forth.  I think I had that goal for at least two years.  However, 2009 was the year I would finally see it through and I honestly attribute part of the accomplishment to the support I received from my friends (Thanks Rachel!  You're the best!).

My goal for this year is to get my novel published (this is me shooting for the moon), or at least make significant progress in that direction (and here are my stars in case I miss hehe).

I have a printed version of my manuscript finally (thanks mother!), which is a good solid 375 pages.  I will begin reading it through soon once the January rush settles down for me a bit.

I hope to hear something from the agencies I submitted to.  I mailed my materials to them December 9, 2009.  January 9, 2010 will mark the fourth week they've had them.  I'm supposed to give it up to six weeks for a few of the agencies, and I know some of them take longer.  In the meantime I have lots of work to do and I have to not be so lazy about doing them... I have a mission to accomplish!  Let nothing and no one stop you from achieving your goals!

The Human Body

The human body is amazing to put it simply.  I like to compare the human form to a machine, and thus in a great deal of my writings I tend to have cyborgs, androids, robots, and synthetic humans.

When I started writing The Mechanical Room, I was having some health problems and struggling to find the right amounts of fiber to help with my digestion process.  I'm trying not to be too graphic and gross here, but I think you get the picture.  Let's just say having a colonoscopy... no fun.

When you're sick and your condition is "pre-existing" then you are pretty much screwed in this country (currently).  You have to be a miniature doctor yourself and research your symptoms and try to find some common things that may help you.  During the research process, I found myself dipping back into my old college textbooks on Human Anatomy.

I remember reading that there are cells in the human body that doctors and scientists are still baffled by their exact function and purpose.  This notion is like someone igniting a fuse of creativity for a science fiction and fantasy writer.  Once I formulated the basic concept of my novel, I began perusing through one of my textbooks looking at each system in the human body.

To me, the idea of exploring certain systems (i.e. the nervous system, respiratory system, digestive system, urinary system, cardiovascular system, and lymphatic system) from the perspective of someone in a fantastical world and setting was exhilarating.

I designated a system of the human anatomy as a home for each race in my book.  The dwarves lives in the nervous system along with the cat people.  The dryads make their home in the respiratory system.  The gnomes live in the cardiovascular system.  The gremlins dwell in the digestive system with their cousins, the imps, living in the urinary system separated by a shadow veil.  The Alliance of Defenders rightfully reign over the lymphatic system.  The next challenge was to map out this world, which was definitely challenging but fun at the same time.

When I read stories and articles about how someone miraculously beat cancer, survived a car crash with no injuries, was shot in the head but recovered without any complications, or is able to remember every moment of their life... to me that is amazing. 

In many ways my book, The Mechanical Room, pays tribute to the miracles of the human body.  For those of you out there who have New Year's resolutions to take better care of yours... I salute you and wish you luck on YOUR journey.