Christina June On Pushing Yourself & Changing Your Writing Routine

Welcome to the SNOB - Second Novel Ominipresent Blues. Whether you’re under contract or trying to snag another deal, you’re a professional now, with the pressures of a published novelist compounded with the still-present nagging self-doubt of the noobie. How to deal?

My guest for today is Christina June, author of It Started with Goodbye and Everywhere You Want to Be. Christina writes young adult contemporary fiction when she’s not writing college recommendation letters during her day job as a school counselor. She loves the little moments in life that help someone discover who they’re meant to become – whether it’s her students or her characters.

Is it hard to leave behind the first novel and focus on the second?

Yes! The debut year comes with so much hype, and I sometimes feel like waving my hands and saying, “but wait, there’s more!” In many ways, I’m lucky that my second book is a companion to my debut. It is set in the same world and takes place a year later, narrated by a different character; often, it feels like an extension of the first.

On the other hand, I had to figure out how to see the characters I created through a different set of eyes. I’ve been praised for developing a real, genuine teen voice in the first book and trying to meet that bar for round two was quite the journey. Readers seemed to really connect with Tatum in It Started with Goodbye and I’ve really struggled with believing that my new main character, Tilly, is just as authentic and likeable, even though she is completely different.

I finally understood, when my husband was reading it, that every character has a reader. He kept saying how he really connected with Tilly, because he’s had similar experiences, and that was the moment I realized I’d done my job right.

At what point do you start diverting your energies from promoting your debut and writing / polishing / editing your second?

I was preparing the final version of Everywhere You Want to Be a few weeks before It Started with Goodbye was published. At that time, I was not only working on polishing the new manuscript, but writing blog posts and answering interview questions, planning a launch party, and posting on social media, on top of having a full time job and being a parent.

It’s been a challenge to stay in the headspace of two novels at once, talking about one with readers and talking about the other with my publishing team. I imagine it gets harder as you add more books to your catalog, but I’m up for the challenge. I’m so lucky to be able to do this more than once and fully expect that each book will teach me something new to take with me to the next.

Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?

I never planned to write a set of companion novels, but I’ve long admired Miranda Kenneally and her ability to connect characters and keep an inviting contemporary world going. When my editor wrote, “ Tilly fascinates me,” in my first edit letter for It Started with Goodbye, the wheels started turning. I realized she had her own story to tell and it was my pleasure to draw it out of her.

I guess I would say that I did write this one for myself—I challenged myself in new ways, and indulged myself by setting it in New York City, one of my very favorite places. Writing about a dancer also allowed me to do something really fun. One of my dear critique partners, Katherine Locke, wrote an adult romance series about dancers and she graciously allowed me to borrow two of her characters. That part was for both of us.

Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author?

I’ve always had to be good at managing my time, fitting in writing time around work and parenting and adulting. I’m a champion at finding small bits of time in my schedule and using them efficiently. The part that surprised me was how much time promotion takes. Even when you’ve got a marketing team with a great plan, a lot of the legwork falls on the author. We’re always hustling. So I’m still trying to find that balance—which includes speaking up about what doesn’t work for me and saying no to the things I just don’t have time for.

What did you do differently the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?

My second book sold on proposal, which meant a full synopsis and three chapters. I’d written a one-page synopsis before, to use while querying, but never one that contained every little plot detail. Before this, I mulled over things a lot in my head, wrote down character sketches and the biggest plot points, but never really planned more than that. But knowing the book wouldn’t sell if I didn’t work out all the details was a lot of pressure.

Writing that seven-page synopsis was excruciating, and my agent and editor can verify that. In the end though, I ended up with a detailed road map and I knew exactly where to go from there. Drafting was easy. That process taught me that I am capable of changing my routine and pushing myself harder. And, in fact, we just sold my third book and the proposal process was so much easier this time. I am someone who marinates on a story for a long time before putting anything down on the page, and, knowing what I know now, getting it all out of my head before I even begin to draft is something I plan on doing from now on.

Is it MG or YA? Tips To Discover Who Your Audience Is

A common mistake among authors who write for the younger set is to refer to young adult and middle grade as genres. That's not the case - middle grade and young adult refers to the age range of the target audience, also called a category.

That's where things stop being simple.

Middle grade and young adult have overlapping areas, and what of the term upper middle-grade? What kind of content is acceptable in middle grade? Is it only the age of the protagonist that determines whether the category is MG or YA?

These are all great questions, and so I put together a brief podcast episode to address exactly this issue. Enjoy!

Author Kurt Dinan on the Sophomore Slump

Welcome to the SNOB - Second Novel Ominipresent Blues. Whether you’re under contract or trying to snag another deal, you’re a professional now, with the pressures of a published novelist compounded with the still-present nagging self-doubt of the noobie. How to deal?

Today's guest for the SNOB (Second Novel Omnipresent Blues) is Kurt Dinan, author of Don't Get Caught, available from Sourcebooks. Kurt is a high school English teacher living in Cincinnati.

Is it hard to leave behind the first novel and focus on the second?

My hope was always to write a sequel to Don't Get Caught, but the publisher said they wanted to see how sales went before committing to another. Knowing that meant I’d likely be waiting a year or more, I decided I had to move onto other characters, which, yeah, proved harder than I thought it would be. Luckily, I’d been taking notes for a different book, so I just threw myself into that. My head, however, kept returning to the world I’d established in DGC, and so I’d jot stuff down when it would come to me in case I ever use those characters again.

At what point do you start diverting your energies from promoting your debut and writing / polishing / editing your second?

Promoting a novel becomes a second job, or if you’re writing another novel and working a “real” job, a third job. I did a lot of preliminary promotional work prior to DGC coming out, but once it was out, I didn’t do too much that took away from working on the next book. I’m not sure how much control you have over the sales of your book, anyway.

I also go back to that great line from Searching for Bobby Fischer where someone says, “It's unsettling, isn't it? When you realize there are only so many things you can teach a child. And finally...they are who they are.” Eventually you have to move on, and I did that pretty quickly.

Your first book landed an agent and an editor, and hopefully some fans. Who are you writing the second one for? Them, or yourself?

It’s a terrible balancing act, right? You’re to write the book for yourself, but your agent and editor are thinking about the fans, so you have to take all of them into consideration and hope that somehow you hit that sweet spot where everyone is happy. I spent two years writing the follow-up to DGC, and my agent came back with, “great characters and great world, but this isn’t the story they deserve.”

So I’m starting again, which is frustrating, but you have to trust that the professionals know what they’re doing. You can write a book completely for yourself, but that doesn’t mean that anyone else will like it, so you have to learn to collaborate.

Is there a new balance of time management to address once you’re a professional author?

I’m not sure how and when other writer’s write, but once I sold DGC, my writing routine didn’t change all that much. Because of…well, life (four kids, full-time teaching job, etc.), I’ve had to carve out my writing time, and that means working from 3:30-5 in the morning. I don’t write full time like I’d like to, but if I did, I certainly wouldn’t be working those stupid hours. But you do what you can, right?

What did you do differently the second time around, with the perspective of a published author?

I’m a lot more patient with the writing process. I have a better understanding now that bad writing days come (and in some cases, really, really bad writing weeks), but it’s all part of the process and it shakes itself out eventually if you keep working at it. I’m better now at handling the frustration that comes with writing because I have some evidence that I can be successful at writing, even if I don’t believe it all the time.