Tag Archives: Manuscript

THE YEAR 2015

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Many folk make new year resolutions every year: shed more weight, spend more time with the family, get a better job, buy a house, find a better treatment for an illness, and on and on and on. These are important to all who make them and often are needed for improvements in the quality of their life. But for writer’s, resolutions tend to remain similar: write a manuscript (or write a better manuscript), find awesome critique partners, sign with an agent, get an amazing editor, have a book published (or get another book published), and so forth. But what if last years resolution wasn’t met?

Making the decision to do something and see it to fruition doesn’t always mean that it will occur in the timeframe one may wish. Does this mean a person should give up on that resolution? Of course not. Only ideas that are abandoned will certainly never see the light of day. Maybe the method someone uses works fine and just needs more time. Or maybe the person needs to find a new approach. For example, maybe a pantser decides to outline a plot this year or perhaps a writer reworks a query letter to take a completely different angle. Everyone should find what works best for them, even if it means changing things up a bit. With diligence and creativity, resolutions for 2015 can be accomplished.

Believe!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

Interview: Brent Taylor Literary Agent

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Great things are happening in the literary world. One of the latest is former editor, Brent Taylor, becoming a literary agent. But let me tell you, Brent is no stranger to this new hat. He interned for two years at The Bent Agency before being hired at TriadaUS Literary Agency earlier this year.

Brent Taylor

1)      I was devastated you had to recently drop out as a mentor of a contest until I learned the super awesome reason. Can you tell us the journey of how you became an agent with TriadaUS?

It’s very long, but the abridged version is: I spent years working under various agents and agencies, and one day an incredible opportunity fell into my lap. Rest is history, etc. (Read more…)

#PITMAD, hosted by @Brenda Drake

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Don’t forget the quarterly pitch event with Brenda Drake is coming up this Thursday, December 4, 2014 on twitter under the hashtag #PitMad. If you are new to the game of writing, this is where you create a 140 character pitch for your FINISHED manuscript and tweet for agents to read. Things to remember:

  • Pitch submission time is 8am-8pm EDT (New York time)
  • You must fit the hashtag of #Pitmad within the 140 characters.
  • Include the category and genre in the 140 characters.
  • Change tweets up. (Twitter will remove identical ones thinking they are spam.)
  • DON’T FAVORITE TWEETS! This is for agents only. (If you want to support a friend, do it by retweeting.)
  • If you won’t be available this day, schedule tweets using Tweetdeck.
  • Only tweet once per thirty minutes so you don’t hog congest the feed.
  • Don’t tweet agents and editors directly unless they tweet you first.
  • Scammers can’t be controlled on an open pitch party. DO YOUR HOMEWORK before you submit from a favorite.

For additional tips, go to Brenda’s Drakes Pitmad page. As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

Pitch Contest with Entangled Publishing, hosted by Brenda Drake

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The Queen of Contests, Brenda Drake, is hosting a pitch event with Entangled Publishing on November 10, 2014. If you write romance, or have romantic undertones in your novel, this pitch event might be for you.

To enter, you’ll need a 100-word pitch (max) and the first 100 words of your manuscript. You will also need to research which line your MS falls under and know what the editors are looking for.

Single-title Imprints

Category Romance Imprints

Brenda breaks these lines down and offers a link to the editors likes here. The event will be live on Brenda’s blog, so be sure you’re following her! You’ve only got a few more days to polish those pitches.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

 

NIGTMARE ON QUERY STREET 2014 IS APPROACHING!

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October is the time for ghosts and ghouls to scare the bejeebers out of us as they creep out of the closet. Even more exciting…it’s NIGHTMARE ON QUERY STREET month! This is a fabulous writerly contest hosted by Michelle, Michael, and SC.

What’s that? You don’t have a scary manuscript to enter. NEVER FEAR! The contest is designed for only your pitch to be scary. You need to write a paragraph of no more than 100 words about what the most fearsome obstacle your main character has to overcome and submit with your query and first 250 words of your manuscript. So, your MC doesn’t have to be fleeing a group of vampires to be entered in this awesome contest. Oh no! Your MC’s most fearsome obstacle could be the eight-year-old nosy neighbor that will rat him out about the party he threw last week if he doesn’t buy that $500 WII system for her.

Now hurry and get to planning your pitch! The submission window opens at 12 noon (EST) on October 15th. The window will close at 12 noon (EST) October 17th or when they receive 225 entries. But know there are rules to be followed, so read everything here to make sure you clearly understand the submission guidelines.

As always, good luck!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

 

 

 

 

PITCH WARS: MEET THE AGENTS

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In case you’re wondering, PITCH WARS is a super cool contest hosted by the fabulous Brenda Drake. And, of course, it’s a writing contest. What else would I post? And what’s seriously special about this contest is writers will be selected for mentoring. That’s right, winners will get help polishing their ENTIRE manuscript to get it ready for the agent round.

Girls wanna have fun

Today Brenda posted the awesome lineup of agents that will be participating from agencies such as The Bent Agency, Dystel & Goderich, Sarah Jane Freymann, Park Literary, Writers House, Andrea Brown Literary, and—and more! So go check them out here.

The submission window is fast approaching…August 18th, 2014 to be exact. Get your fingers flying on those keyboards and finish that novel to submit. I know you can do it!

Good luck and happy writing!

P.D. Pabst
Writer and blogger of MG/YA fiction

 

PITCH WARS CONTEST IS APPROACHING

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This is not an event where writers sit around a table spitting saliva all over each other fighting for a chance to get the attention of the agent they strapped to the center, all while spewing their loglines. Oh no, this is much safer…and dryer. I promise.

Girls wanna have fun

(Photo used with permission.)

 

This is a wonderful contest hosted by the contest queen herself, Brenda Drake. What’s great about this particular contest is the winning entrants get mentored by either an agented (and published) author or a professional editor. These are people who’ve been in the trenches and/or worked in the writing industry long enough to offer priceless feedback. And further, they will critique the winner’s entire manuscript. That’s right…THE WHOLE ENCHILADA.

And after months of the winners pulling their hair out making all requested edits, they will be rewarded with an agent round. It begins November 4, 2014. What does that mean? The participating agents will begin requesting their favorite entries to read from pitches posted to the blog. This years agents haven’t been revealed yet, but you can go here to see the agents from the previous Pitch Wars.

You must have a polished manuscript to enter the contest, but no worries because submissions start August 18, 2014. But know, this date will fall upon you before you realize. So, get to crackin’, er tappin’!

And don’t forget, check out the mentors for this year here and be sure to follow Brenda’s blog for updates on the contest.

As always, good luck and happy writing.

 

P.D. Pabst
Blogger and writer of MG/YA Fiction

AN AUTHORESS CONTEST

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For all writers who haven’t noticed, the lovely Authoress posted a #Blogpitch contest on her website Miss Snark’s First Victim. This starts as a logline contest on twitter in which 10 winners will be picked to get critiques. All persons leaving critiques will be entered for a chance to win a 15 page line edit from the wonderful Authoress! How cool is that?

To Qualify:

  • Follow Authoress on Twitter
  • Have an active writing-related blog (posting at least once a week)
  • Have a clean manuscript. Although it can be a work “in progress”, absolutely NO FIRST DRAFTS!

How to enter:

  • Submission window starts  noon (EDT) on Monday, June 30 and ends at noon (EDT) on Tuesday, July 1, 2014.
  • Tweet your 128 character (or fewer) logline to #BLOGPITCH on Twitter

How it works after the tweets and the dates:

  • Authoress will choose 10 favorite loglines (Announced Thursday, July 3)
  • Winners will be invited to post their logline + first 250 words ON THEIR OWN BLOGS.
  • Winners MUST send links to Authoress by Sunday, July 6.
  • Authoress will post the 10 links on BLOG CRITIQUE TOUR DAY. (Posted on Wednesday, July 9.)
  • Everyone, including winners, can visit the blogs and leave a critique. (Each critique=1 entry in drawing for a 15 page line edit from Authoress.) Critiquing starts immediately. All critiques entered by Friday, July 11, will be entered into drawing.

(Note:  All genres except erotica or erotic romance will be accepted.)

ONE WORD A DAY

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Sure, the process is as slow as molasses running down an iceberg in the North Atlantic Ocean. But one word a day will get you closer to your goal of a completed manuscript. Do I mean only type one word a day for life? I may have some rocks loose inside my noggin but I do know how to count! This process may be okay if you are writing books for children, but it isn’t practical for a novel of 70,000 words. It will take 191 years to write and I am not immortal.

So, what do I mean? On the days you believe you’ve no time to write at all, sit and write one word. Yes, one word. It will do two things.

1) Give a sense of progress for your manuscript.
2) Get you closer to finishing.

It sounds silly, but make it a goal. Actually, make it a writer’s pledge. Repeat after me: “If I can’t write for hours, I’m going to write at least one word.” There. We can swap spit and shake hands. We have formed a writer’s virtual pact to complete our manuscripts.

What is amazing, you may find it difficult to write only one word. Usually, a complete sentence gets structured, maybe even two. We do this because we are writers. It’s in our blood.

Now, let’s presume most days you will write two sentences at an average of fourteen words per sentence. You could finish the novel in approximately seven years. And if you only write one word on some of those days, you could still finish in approximately ten years. It’s a goal that’s more feasible than 191 years! (Thank goodness we don’t need to be bitten by a vampire to continue writing. However, I’m not objecting if you know one.)

Yeah, yeah, yeah. You want to write a novel in one month. Well, I wasn’t speaking to James Patterson. This is a good rule to follow for those who work another day job…maybe two day jobs! If you are breathing, you can write. Jot what you can, when you can. If it takes longer to get there, it’s better to complete your manuscript ten years from now than never at all. Don’t hide behind you’ve no time.

And there you have it…one word a day CAN get you closer to your goal. Just don’t be a noodlehead about it.

P.D. Pabst
Writer of YA and Blogger