Old People Writing for Teens, IV

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Dorothy

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Hey everyone! Seems I haven't been here for a while. Now I know why 'busy' is a four-letter word.

Hope you're all doing well. I'm still crossing my fingers for you all. :)
 

triceretops

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Dear gawd, I should have joined this thread a long time ago. I've been painfully enduring some comments from my agent-subbed YA fantasy, by the big houses. It appears that waaaay too much teenage slang is tanking my chances, along with stilted prose and behavoir that is not indicative of teenagers.

I emailed my agent and said, "HOLD THE HORSES." Spent five 12-hours days rewriting the whole manuscript, including pulling verbose sentences and fixing some small plot holes. I just sent it off minutes ago, freshly revised. I have little to no slang in the new version, and the kids are actually thinking like and talking like kids.

I can only imagine one of the reasons for removing my slang--if the book were published by a NYC house, there would be all kinds of problems trying to transcribe American slang into foreign language editions. Along with the fact that it looks like stereotyping and comes off as cliche.

Lesson learned for me, the hard way. Apparently I can't get away with it. Seems others can with no prob.

Tri
 

parumpdragon

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Hi there - sorry to hear about the houses giving you trouble.

Hopefully the new draft will do well and be better accepted!
 

triceretops

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Hi there - sorry to hear about the houses giving you trouble.

Hopefully the new draft will do well and be better accepted!

Thanks, I just wish I would have done it sooner. But it didn't hit me until I put all of the comments together and compared them. They were basically all saying the same thing, only using different terms and explantions to describe the problem.
 

J.S.F.

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Just got my (e) contract in the (e) mail. Fun stuff and now I get to do rewrites until I go blind.:)
 

pixydust

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Good luck with the new polished draft, Chris!

I got about 200pgs of edits done today and mes is happies!!!!! YAYS!!!! Now comes the hard part of the last 100pgs where I have to do a bit more rewrite instead of insert. And I think I'm killing off a character, so... :D
 

pixydust

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Thanks all! Yes, editing is quite the adventure! I'm enjoying this one though!!! It's actually been super fun. I was asked to add more recognizable Manhattan details and so I started playing with google maps. And did you guys know you can go INTO the map??? AHK! It's so amazingly fun!!!

Oh, and I made Winter Rose free again today! So if you have a desire to get a free book, then get mine! :) And if you don't have a Kindle then just PM me or rep me your email, and I can send you an ePub or PDF.

Link-age: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006C75V86/?tag=absowrit-20

Happy Friday! :D
 

skydragon

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Hello everyone. Just discovered this thread! I'm 21 and I write a lot of young adult/teenage fiction, so I'm not really old, but I think I'll hang out here, regardless. :)
 

mellymel

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:welcome: RJ!

Glad tohave you here. :)

BTW, LOVE your avi :D I knew immediately what is was cause that scene ALWAYS makes me tear up. My twin daughters (almost 6yrs old) are named Arwen and Lorien. *fan much* ? lol
 
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