Alexandra Duncan On Keeping Lists For Inspiration

Inspiration is a funny thing. It can come to us like a lightning bolt, through the lyrics of a song, or in the fog of a dream. Ask any writer where their stories come from and you’ll get a myriad of answers, and in that vein I created the WHAT (What the Hell Are you Thinking?) interview. Always including in the WHAT is one random question to really dig down into the interviewees mind, and probably supply some illumination into my own as well.

Today's guest for the WHAT is Alexandra Duncan, an author and librarian. Her YA sci-fi novels, Salvage and Sound, are available from Greenwillow Books. Her short fiction has appeared in several Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy anthologies and The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction. Her newest release, Blight, released in 2017.

Ideas for our books can come from just about anywhere, and sometimes even we can’t pinpoint exactly how or why. Did you have a specific origin point for your book?

Blight started as a freewriting exercise way back in 2011. Two other authors and I challenged each other to write a book in the space of a summer, and the first third of Blight was what came out of it.

I had this image of a girl in a guard tower who had been trained to kill intruders choosing not to pull the trigger, which became the first scene in the novel. I also was really fascinated by the idea of the Global Seed Vault in Svalbard, Sweden, where they keep a library of as many of the world’s variety of food crop seeds as they can find. Some people call it the “Doomsday” vault. I couldn’t help trying to imagine what kind of scenario might cause us to need it.

Once the original concept existed, how did you build a plot around it?

When I start writing, I tend to have an initial idea of the central conflict and how I want the book to end, but not much in between. My books tend to be very character driven, and I can’t always plot out where the main character’s emotional arc will take them, so I usually develop that in tandem with the plot as I go.

Have you ever had the plot firmly in place, only to find it changing as the story moved from your mind to paper?

Definitely. I had initially thought Blight would be much more of a road novel, perhaps with the characters literally traveling to the Svalbard seed vault and encountering different factions as they went. While some of those elements are still there, they’re only part of the whole. I realized that reaching the destination was only part of the journey. That couldn’t be the end of the book.

Do story ideas come to you often, or is fresh material hard to come by?

I’m always having ideas, the question is whether or not they’re good ones. Some seem really cool at first, but then later I realize they’ve cliche or already been done at first. Then there are some ideas that I love, but that I think would be better told by someone else. For example, I would love to write a YA adaptation of the story of Queen Esther, but I think a Jewish author could do that story so much more justice and bring so much more depth and meaning to it than I could. (Please, someone write this!)

How do you choose which story to write next, if you’ve got more than one percolating?

If I’m not on a deadline, I tend to bounce back and forth between stories, depending on what I’m feeling more inspired to write that day. For example, if I’m stuck on one story, I’ll go work on another at a different stage of development. I keep an ongoing list of interesting things, so if an image or concept strikes me, I write it down to go back to later when I’m lacking inspiration.

I have 6 cats (seriously, check my Instagram feed) and I usually have at least one or two snuggling with me when I write. Do you have a writing buddy, or do you find it distracting?

I haven’t leveled up to quite as many cats yet. I have two, along with the occasional foster cat who stays in my office while it’s recuperating from some minor illness or another. My two permanent residents like to sit near me while I’m writing, but they usually don’t interfere with the False Cat, i.e. my laptop. The only downside to writing with them is that they start looking so relaxed, they make me want to take a nap!

Recycle Or Trash It? Reworking An Old Manuscript

Opening an old manuscript feels a bit like glancing at your own diary. There are things in there you'd forgotten about that you're delighted to see again, but that's probably outweighed by the blushing and embarrassment.

We grow as writers over time and our skills develop by small measures, something we don't notice in the day to day, but are readily apparent when we look at a manuscript from years (or even months) ago.

People are often surprised when I tell them that The Female of the Species is the first book I ever wrote. It was, but the version that I banged out in my college dorm room in 1999 has absolutely nothing in common with the manuscript that sold fifteen years later, apart from the title and a few character names.

That manuscript went through multiple revisions in the intervening years, some with me laboring over already existing pages, and two entirely from scratch. Yet it wasn't until 2014 that I considered opening it again and taking another crack. Once more, I glanced through a few pages and knew there was nothing salvageable.

File> New Document, here I come.

It is intimidating, definitely. I had hundreds of pages of existing words that had been revised multiple times. They served their own purpose on the journey towards creating the publishable manuscript, but those words were more like speed bumps on that highway. If I chose that route I'd have to hit every single one of them, consider it, rephrase it, re-work it, or - yes - delete it and rewrite it with my newly acquired skill set before I could move on to the next paragraph and begin the analysis anew.

It's slow work, and hard.

I didn't even consider this approach when re-drafting The Female of the Species because of a single element.

Voice.

In itself, voice is a tricky element of a manuscript, one that is ephemeral and hard to describe, even for the author. The original version of The Female of the Species was an adult thriller, not a YA. I knew that the whole thing needed to be scrapped in order to change the voice so that it was appropriate for the age category, and that's something that's very difficult - I would almost argue impossible - to insert through a line-by-line breakdown.

Here are some things to consider when you're trying to decide whether to revise that old manuscript, or start fresh with the concept.

1. Voice - as I said before, voice is embedded in the manuscript, and trying to force it into each line through a broken and slow process can be extremely difficult. If you're going for a new voice on this revision, I'd recommend a fresh start.

2. Characters - who are these people? Did you think your female was hilarious a few years ago, but now you find her annoying and sarcastic? You've probably changed as a person, and the lens you're looking at through her now is adjusted. Is she way off from what you were trying to portray, or can you take that edge off her by adjusting some dialogue?

3. Setting - This is one of the hardest things (in my opinion) that a new writer struggles with. Is place important to what you were writing, or is it a story that could happen just about anywhere? If you took a whack at writing something deeply connected to a physical location as a young writer, take a look and see if you played that hand a little too heavily - or too light - and consider whether or not the struggle of drawing those connections can be inserted between the lines, or if you need to start fresh.

4. Dialogue & Tech - Does it talk like a human? Great! Or maybe it talks like a human stuck in the 90s? If your book is heavy with pop culture references or depends on technology for plot twists, definitely do a serious consideration of whether or not it's something that you can scrub, or if the simple presence of a cell phone makes your entire plot pointless.

Don't be afraid to mix and match. You may have huge swaths of pages that only need a little tweaking, and then a really bad run of a hundred or so that have got to go. That's fine. Always save multiple copies of your work, with titles that tell you exactly what it is so that you don't have to go digging through files to find that one working version of your novel where the paranormal angle stayed in.

Also, don't assume that seasoned writers have it all figured out. I started a new manuscript this week and currently have six different operating versions while I try to figure out POV, tense, and where the story is going to begin.

Lastly, as always, once you've got something you think might be workable, find a reader. Critique partners are how you improve. Find one that won't be afraid to tell you that using AIM to have your teens talk to each other isn't viable anymore.

Melissa Caruso: The Powerlessness of an Author on Submission

If there's one thing that many aspiring writers have few clues about, it's the submission process. There are good reasons for that; authors aren't exactly encouraged to talk in detail about our own submission experiences, and - just like agent hunting - everyone's story is different. I managed to cobble together a few non-specific questions that some debut authors have agreed to answer (bless them). And so I bring you the submission interview series - Submission Hell - It's True. Yes, it's the SHIT.

Today's guest for the SHIT (Submission Hell, It's True) Is Melissa Caruso, author of the Swords & Fire trilogy, an adult fantasy series of intrigue and magic from Orbit Books. The first book, The Tethered Mage, has been shortlisted for a Gemmell Award. Book two, The Defiant Heir, is out now, and the third book is coming in 2019.

How much did you know about the submission process before you were out on subs yourself?

I found all the posts and internet articles I could on the process, but even going in informed it was still very mysterious. The whole process is so opaque to the writer (and there are enough variations between publishers) that it’s still very much a black box. Your book goes in one end, and, after a completely unknown period of time, a yes or no comes out the other end. So being informed helps you understand why the process can take a long time, for instance, but it doesn’t help you actually see what’s happening to your book inside that black box.

Did anything about the process surprise you?

I wasn’t prepared for how completely uninvolved and powerless you are as the author. When you’re querying agents, you can send out another query if you get a rejection, or if you’re going crazy waiting to hear back on the last batch. You’re in control of when or whether to nudge, and you’re the first person to hear if there’s any news. On sub, you hand 100% of what control you ever had over to your agent, and you have absolutely nothing you can do to help your book succeed. I understood intellectually how that worked, but I was surprised by how incredibly hard it was to accept in practice.

Did you research the editors you knew had your ms? Do you recommend doing that?

My agency didn’t tell authors the names of the specific editors, which actually I think was a good thing, because I was already being way too obsessive about the process, and I’m not sure I could have refrained from silently stalking every editor who had my ms and reading way too much into every single tweet they made. Not knowing forced me to step back and chill out and not obsess, which helped me think of other things and get on with my creative life while on sub.

What was the average amount of time it took to hear back from editors?

It really varied a huge amount. I was on sub with two different books, and I think the average across both books was about two months. Or, as I like to call it, A THOUSAND YEARS.

What do you think is the best way for an author out on submission to deal with the anxiety?

Write the next book! When I was out on sub with my first book, I was well into writing the next one (The Tethered Mage, which would become my debut). I already knew it was a better book, and I had a gut feeling that this was the one that would sell. It made it so much easier to deal with the anxiety of waiting and with the rejections, because I was really excited about this new book and had a lot of hope invested in it that couldn’t be ground down by going through submission hell with the previous book.

If you had any rejections, how did you deal with that emotionally? How did this kind of rejection compare to query rejections?

Sub rejections hurt more than query rejections, at least for me, for two reasons.

First, if I got a query rejection, I could send out another query or revise my book—there were actions I could take to try to make the next one a yes. On sub, there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

And second, every rejection on sub is a final closed door out of a fairly limited total number of doors for that particular book. You’re at the end of the road in a way you aren’t for a query.

That said, I got a great tip from an author friend on how to deal with rejections when on sub! I had a specific special treat that I promised myself for the next rejection, like going out to eat at a restaurant I liked or buying some special tea I really wanted. It had to be something I really wanted and would look forward to. Then I would even catch myself thinking things like “Wow, I hope I get a rejection soon, so I can go out for fondue!” When a rejection came in, it still stung, but at the same time it meant I was getting a present, and that really helped move past the gloom to something positive.

If you got feedback on a rejection, how did you process it? How do you compare processing an editor’s feedback as compared to a beta reader’s?

One nice thing about editorial rejections is that they often come with feedback. Sadly, sometimes that feedback is something you can do absolutely nothing about, like “We already have a book similar to this on our list” or “I loved this, but we just decided not to publish this age category anymore.”

The feedback is less likely to be about how to make the book better, like a beta reader’s or an agent’s would be, and more likely to be giving a reason for why they didn’t fall in love with it enough to take it on—or why they have to pass despite falling in love with it, which can happen. It’s a different perspective, and is also very different from the kind of feedback you get from an editor after you sign with them (which is a bit more like a beta reader’s, if your beta reader was really, really, really good at it).

Sub rejection feedback (especially on my first book) was a bit of an eye opener for me into how editors are looking at the big picture—how books will fit into the market, and not just whether it was a good read.

When you got your YES! how did that feel? How did you find out – email, telephone, smoke signal?

Okay, so first my agent calls me ON MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY, no lie, to tell me an editor has some questions about my book. The editor wanted to know whether I’d be willing to make certain revisions (changing it from YA to Adult and a couple other things). I was completely freaking out, and I could tell my agent was really excited too, and we both were trying not to get TOO excited because it wasn’t an offer yet….But if it were an R&R, she would probably just have sent an email and not called to ask if I’d consider making the changes, right?

So I was ABSOLUTELY DYING of suspense for the rest of my birthday, knowing that SOMETHING was in the works. And then the next day I couldn’t take it anymore and emailed my agent with some spurious question and was like BY THE WAY DID YOU HEAR ANYTHING, and she wrote back saying something like “Actually, I heard back, but I’m on my way to do some urgent beekeeping, can I call you tonight? We have a lot to talk about.”

And I was like WHAT DOES THIS MEAN OMG WAIT WHAT BEES AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!

And then finally, FINALLY I had my phone call, and it was an offer not just for one book, but for a trilogy. I completely lost my mind and was running around my house squeeing and bumping into things and babbling to my kids and my husband. For days. I smiled so much I felt like my cheeks were going to pop off. My kids thought I was hilarious, and would set me off on purpose by going “Hey, Mom, your book is going to be published,” and then sit back and giggle as I freaked out with glee all over again.

Did you have to wait a period of time before sharing your big news, because of details being ironed out? Was that difficult?

I had to wait almost THREE MONTHS, and it was torture. I verbally told my closest friends and family and swore them to secrecy, which helped get it out of my system a bit, but it was so hard not to talk about it on social media that I had to kind of mostly stay off it for a while, because how do you not talk about something that big? But we were waiting until we had a finalized title to make the announcement, and it took a while.