The Big Bumper Friday Check-In Thread

Supergirlofnc

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Congrats everyone! Super exciting Cheg, make sure to link it here so we can see it!

Supergirlofnc, are you comfortable giving a high-level what the books are about or maybe a comp? What length are you aiming for?

As for myself, I entered Pitchwars, didn't win, but one liked it so much they want to continue helping me. Offered some books to read on structure and I've basically completely re-written my sixth book with it and finished a seventh. Went to a conference up in NJ a month or so ago, pitched two books to two agents they both liked a different book and asked for me to send it, so plan to send my sixth book out hopefully by December on queries and work on editing my seventh and eventually start an eighth book.

That's great about the agents and the pitchwars love. Are the books the agents wanted to see in the same genre and age-group or are they different? Good luck with all of it!

As for my books, the one on submission is about 55K. And I actually thought of a way to improve it next time I revise so I'm excited about that. (Well, mostly excited. Revision is a bit daunting, too.) The one I'm working on right now is only at about 6K but I was thinking between 55K-65K. I'm calling it a cross between the Boxcar Children and The Last Unicorn. That could change, though, as I work on it
 
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playground

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That's great about the agents and the pitchwars love. Are the books the agents wanted to see in the same genre and age-group or are they different? Good luck with all of it!

As for my books, the one on submission is about 55K. And I actually thought of a way to improve it next time I revise so I'm excited about that. (Well, mostly excited. Revision is a bit daunting, too.) The one I'm working on right now is only at about 6K but I was thinking between 55K-65K. I'm calling it a cross between the Boxcar Children and The Last Unicorn. That could change, though, as I work on it



Yea, everything I write is upper MG fantasy. The only thing that adjusts is if it is high or low fantasy.

Do you plan to make a series out of your new books?

Also, I was wondering if you and some of the other published authors might be interested in writing up what you've learned in writing a sequel/trilogy. With my Stargazer series I have ideas for the three books but all my seven books I've written have been different stories altogether and I'd love to get insight from those that have written series on things they learned and such.
 

Supergirlofnc

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Playground - I learned a few things writing a series. I always imagine my stories and characters going on to new stories so that part of writing the was cool. I found that the small details (as well as the over-arching story) of the first book sometimes became more meaningful in the sequels. I'm a semi-reformed, semi-not-reformed pantser but I think more planning earlier would have made my writing life easier and I might have tweaked some of those early details a little bit, too. My suggestion would be to think through the series as much as possible as you write the first book.

The other thing is that by my book three I swear I had about twenty characters that were important enough to need some closure and character arc. It was hard to piece it all into a (hopefully) well put-together ending. I feel like it ended up working for the series. Now when I write, though, I keep an even tighter control on the number of characters and the number of new characters that show up each book. LOL - I only have about four characters total in my book on sub!

I hope some of that is useful! If I have any epiphanies on series writing, I'll make sure to post :)
 

playground

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Playground - I learned a few things writing a series. I always imagine my stories and characters going on to new stories so that part of writing the was cool. I found that the small details (as well as the over-arching story) of the first book sometimes became more meaningful in the sequels. I'm a semi-reformed, semi-not-reformed pantser but I think more planning earlier would have made my writing life easier and I might have tweaked some of those early details a little bit, too. My suggestion would be to think through the series as much as possible as you write the first book.

The other thing is that by my book three I swear I had about twenty characters that were important enough to need some closure and character arc. It was hard to piece it all into a (hopefully) well put-together ending. I feel like it ended up working for the series. Now when I write, though, I keep an even tighter control on the number of characters and the number of new characters that show up each book. LOL - I only have about four characters total in my book on sub!

I hope some of that is useful! If I have any epiphanies on series writing, I'll make sure to post :)



Great points! Thanks so much!
 

heza

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It is Monday and decidedly not Friday, but I'm posting my intentions to spend all this week writing so I can come back, properly, on Friday and tell you I wrote all week.
:tongue