"Old" People Writing for Teens V

I am very paranoid about losing my crits (which I write right here on AW, even though there's nobody for me to PM) and save them to my Scrivener file every time I do anything else on my computer, just in case I accidentally close the tab, or forget that I have another tab to track things on AW and use the one with the crit, or the computer crashes, or Safari crashes, etc.

I was very sad this morning & at lunch to have no new crits, so it was great to have 10 PMs in my inbox after work!

So a few things have come up recently that have inspired me to work on the last obstacles to self-pubbing the Hero/Villain trilogy. The first book is ready to go, except for the cover-related stuff. Book 2 and 3 need a plot point fixed up between them, and I've highlighted some typos in my Kindle versions of those books that I never got around to fixing on my master copies. The biggest obstacle, I think, is figuring out how to get cover art. I have a design in mind, I just don't know how to get it to the right artist. A friend said he'd do some mock-ups for me, but that was over 2 years ago, and he never did, and since we don't chat much any more, I don't want to be like, "Hi, how are you doing? And, oh, by the way, please do this for me." I'm not shy about paying someone for these covers, but again, I just don't know how to get in touch with someone who would.

I've been thinking about which name to use for the books. Sabrina Brooks is my Wattpad name (with very little to it), and I'm tempted to use it for this, keeping my trade publishing name separate. But if Sage Collins ever takes off, I'd like to use that name to sell the self-pubbed books.

My plan is to get all three books ready, release book 1 for cheap for a month, then make it free when I release book 2 a month later and book 3 a month after that, both on the more expensive (but still very cheap) end. This is a model I remember being suggested ages ago for authors self-pubbing a series. In this case, I can put book 1 on Wattpad too, to tease the other two books, which hopefully brings a new source of readers, and that's another point towards using Sabrina, instead of Sage.

I don’t know if illustrator style is what I want or not. Being a superhero story, I can see it easily with an animated look to it, but I don’t know. Can you email or PM a link for your friend (or examples of their work)? The SP forum has been less helpful than I’d like for this, though I’m still exploring links there.

Sage Collins is also a pen name

Your writing camp sounds like so much fun, JKR, but I bet it's hard too.

Okay, guys, I have finished the last edits. Hopefully, I have finally fixed the problem of beating the reader over the head--I mean, subtly reminding them with catchy key phrases--that this superhuman we only meet 3 times has this particular power before the MCs use it in the climax, so that when they do, people will no longer be scratching their heads over what just happened. It only feels like I'm beating them over their head with it because it was the main thing I fixed in both books. Everything else was picky wording stuff and killing bitten lips with fire (I'm looking at you, Bug and Danny!)

I have found a cover art designer I love (I actually loved a lot that were suggested, but she calls to me) and I'm sending her an e-mail to find out more about pricing and when I can get on her schedule. In the meantime, I have to work on the description I want on each book. It's slightly different than the query (at the very least, it's not spoilery), so I'm trying it from scratch.

The pricing was amazing! She's having a sale. I signed up for 3 covers, and it looks like they'll probably be done in October, so I have a deadline for the blurbs.

Also, I decided I should probably reread H/V1, which was a good idea, it turns out. I've found a bitten lip here too (grr, Evie!).

One thing I've noticed during my review of H/V1 is that in Evie's celebration of looking exactly how she wants to, it could easily be read as fat-shaming, so I'm really glad I'm going through this (not that I wouldn't have during the formatting stage, but it would've felt like a lot more work at that stage). It does turn out to be difficult to write about 2 people who are obsessed with how they look without being negative about certain types of looks.

I also notice that most recurring characters in this book are either considered fit (mostly the supes) or skinny/thin/scrawny (sidekicks, scientists, models). Some of these characters are getting a makeover, and some are just skipping that element of description now, and some are staying the way they were. Skinny/scrawny is not really described as a positive thing, but along with the potential fat-shaming Evie does in the first couple chapters, it does look like a pattern of being like "Everyone should be thin." I can see this as being a problem that develops when much of your inspiration is a television show, considering there are few series actors who are plus-sized, unless they're minor characters or it's a point that they are.

As far as Evie and Ace's thoughts on size, it's a matter of balance. Evie's always going to be obsessed with looks (no matter what Ace says), particularly her choices on her own looks. Ace is more forgiving, but he's always going to celebrate that he improved his own. But surely that can be done without making it seem like people should be ashamed to be overweight.

(You can tell I usually only reread books 2 & 3)

Camp NaNo is nice because it gives you that editing option, though.

I also feel like I've leveled up recently, and it's because of reexamining H/V1. I had the sense before that with 4 years under my belt between book 1 & book 2, that I probably was a better writer, and I even could feel it when I reread book 1, but I couldn't point to what exactly I was missing. But this time around--maybe because I came off reviewing books 2 & 3, and then went to book 1, which I haven't done since I wrote books 2 & 3, and back then I was specifically looking for things related to the future books' plot twists--I'm seeing places where I'm lacking (on top of the whole potential fat-shaming issue). These are places where that editor I won wouldn't necessarily have called me out on, but with the deeper insight into my characters--particularly Ace--in the future books, I am seeing where I was off on a "Isn't this cool?" tangent and not diving into them as people as much.

Last night I hit on my favorite scene from that book, which I've already revised once in light of books 2 & 3. Part of the problem with Ace in book 1, is that I thought at the time that he was what the Big Bad actually is. And I'm realizing that I didn't bring in his vulnerabilities until the second half of the book. So originally, this scene, where he kills another villain for keeping him from Evie, was him being stone-cold as he shot the guy. Very cool creepy villain-ness, but when doing that last big edit, I realized...not Ace. Ace would totally be flipping out, Kylo-Ren-style, and the only way he'd get through that scene is high on his own rage. Last night, what I realized was that the lead-up to him getting to the villain, while awesomely voicey, really misses out on the fact that he's actually being very daring and probably should be terrified about it. Now, Ace totally will take that terror and redirect it to rage, which is how I'll get him where I need him to be at the end of the scene, but now I have an eye on it and finally get the problem with that scene...as much as I've always loved it. I feel like having this insight will drive how I revise the rest of this book.

Of course, then I'll be afraid I ruined things my betas loved about it, lol.

CoffeeBeans said:

Leveling up in writing/editing is weird. Obviously, growth happens (if we're lucky) but I always feel like it just shows up all of a sudden. I don't feel like I had these skills (if I do actually have them) last week, even though they must have been part of a gradual process. Also, wondering if I actually have them is another problem. Maybe I'm just thinking better/seeing more clearly this week than last week.

Only your betas know you changed something. New readers won't even know there was a previous path there.

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Maybe not even the betas. My experience is that they (or I) get an overall sense of improvement, and maybe remember scenes you took out or notice ones you've added, but changes within a scene, even if they were direct results of their notes, probably won't be noticed, unless they beta'd it very recently. But maybe that's just my own experience as a two-time beta (which I won't do anymore) and with people coming back to my own things.

Eventually I tend to forget what the actual changes were too. Even with H/V1, I'm wondering for some of these scenes what significant change I made in them that had me color-code it for Pitch-to-Publication edit.

CoffeeBeans, I want to thank you for the "leveling up as an author" language, because every major change I make to a scene this time around has my brain congratulating myself on that advancement. There is such a difference in my edits this time compared to even the P2P edits (which were less about realizing and revising problems within and more about adding stuff for the trilogy's sake), not the least of which is because this is all coming from my own realizations about the writing.