Why I Hate The Word "Hobby"

If you've been following my blog for a while now, you may know I have certain words that I absolutely despise, as many of us do. What you may not know, is "hobby" would be one of them.

Let's put aside that it's a hideously ugly word (Yes, I am not an equal-oppertunity wordsmith). Hobby is a casual word, it's what you do for fun, it's breezy, easy, beautiful, Cover Girl. I do not have hobbies. I have interests, passtimes, things I enjoy doing, but I do not have a hobby.

I become absolutely infuriated when people call my writing a hobby. Seriously, try it. My eyes will go red and lightning will shoot out of my fingertips. It's quite entertaining.

Writing is not a hobby for me. It's not even a passtime. It's a job. I may not be published yet, I may not be making any money from these manuscripts that I'm pumping out, but this is my profession. I am a writer. When my friends or family want to go out and I have a date with my protagonist, I say "Can't, I'm working." It took a while, but the people around me started to realize that means I'm writing.

This is why I don't understand writers who call their writing a "hobby."

I understand that for some it is. Just like for some making short films is a hobby, or video editing is a hobby. It's not something they want to pursue a career in, it's just something they do for fun.

Which is fine. But, if you're reading this blog, I'm going to assume you're either my mother or you're a writer trying to get published (or maybe you're already published. Whatever.) If you're my mother, you need to stop stalking me. If you're a writer seeking publication, then writing is not a hobby for you.

That may seem a bit harsh, but let's face facts. If you are trying to publish a book, you are probably going to publish more than one (If not, self-publish. All the bragging rights, none of the rejection.) Which means that you probably want to set yourself up as a writer and keep writing for as long as you can. Which means you're trying to build a career. Get my drift? A hobby is not a career.

You would never hear Steven Speildberg say, "Oh yeah, making movies is a hobby of mine." So why are writers who want to be published saying that what they do is a hobby?

"Oh Katie, I will be an author someday. But right now I haven't found an agent/editor and I haven't seen publication, so it's still a hobby."

No.

Let me repeat that:

No.

All those crappy books that you've shelved? All that hard work? If you intend to see publication, then those pieces are you building your portfolio. You're perfecting your craft, you're working on becoming a better writer so that when you do see publication, you won't be humiliated and wonder "God, why did I write that?"

Why should it matter? What's a word anyway?

I'm a firm believer in definitive thinking. People who say "I'll try to become a published writer" will NEVER see publication, because a) the drive isn't there, and if it isn't b) the confidence is not there. You need to have that confidence if you want to get anywhere.

It's just like setting a goal. If you sit down and say, "This week, I will do this and this and this" you are more likely to complete your to-do list. However, if you just do it with the thought of, "I'll just get as much done as I can" you won't be as productive.

If you want writing to be a hobby for you, great, make it a hobby. But if you're serious about your craft, if you want to see publication, it's work.

Treat your writing professionally, and you will recieve professional results. Treat is like a hobby and well... you get what you put in.

Peace,

-Katie

Everything You Write Has Merit

Sometimes it's hard to see the grand scheme of things. When you work in an office, for example, you hammer tirelessly away at paperwork that seems to come in from a void and return to that very same void. Oftentimes, I feel as though the work that I do is simply an excuse to move my hands all day long without feeling like I'm actually acomplishing anything.

Sound familiar?

I'm sure everyone has felt that way at some point in their lives. Sometimes you get lost, and you just hammer and hammer without feeling like anything in your life has meaning. Sometimes, admitedly, my writing feels that way. Some days (often when I'm editing, as I loathe it down to my very soul) I will stop, throw my hands up in the air and exclaim, "What the hell am I doing?" I appear to have accumulated a pile of words without actually having acomplished anything.

I feel like those hoarders from that TV show. Except I'm collecting words.

I'm sure throughout any writer's career, they get frustrated. They're not sure what they're doing, they lose hope.

Writers out there: Sound familiar?

Well, as usual, Katie comes riding in on a white horse of optimism.

Everything you write has merit.

And the little writer within you exclaims: No way. Not that horrible poem I wrote in tenth grade about how black my soul was because I was in this horrible goth phase that I wish I could blot from my memory.

No, seriously, everything you write has merit.

The inner writer: NO! Not that horrible, horrible short story I wrote when I was mad at my ex-boyfriend and it was pure fantasy and will never see the light of day again.

Don't make me say it again.

Pull out those badly written poems, short stories, muses, novels, novellas, essays or whatever. I want you to grit your teeth and look them over. Really look.

I'll give you a moment.

Did you grit your teeth and bear it? Did you want to beat your head against the table? Were you flooded with nostalgia?

Most importantly: Did you find something you liked about it?

Of course there are the old, underdeveloped characters or the sloppy dialogue that has no place in the market but every place in our hearts. But in every piece of writing you've done, there is merit to it. Writing is not something we are born with. It is not something most are just inherantly good at. Those who are good, whose writing takes your breath away, worked at it for years and years and years. They practiced.

And you may not like to think of it that way, but those old stories and poems are practice. You figured out what worked and what didn't. And there is something in there that is worth it. It may be a line, it may have been a plot twist, it may have been an idea you had or it may have been a character, but there is something in everything we write that proves that writing is worth our time.

And when you shove those old stories back into the box and shove them under the bed, never to see the light of day again, you've got to remember that those stories taught you about your writing. Those bad stories made you into the writer that twists your nose at your old work and say, "What was I thinking?"

Every writer has "What were you thinking?" stories. That's how we learn and that's how we perfect our craft.

Peace,

-Katie

Rejection. Maybe. Sorta. Yes? No.

So, I recieved a rejection for a partial I had on for In The Eye of Death. Every author on submission knows that rejections should be taken with a grain of salt. After all, most agents don't give us good reasons for rejecting, even if they read a partial or full. Agents are too busy to give heavy critiques. I'm personally fine with that. As long as I don't get a form rejection on my full.

Well, I recieved my rejection today. Here it is:


Dear Katie,

I finished reading your chapters for IN THE EYES OF DEATH over the weekend. While I still really love your idea for this story, I was not able to connect with the writing. I do think you've created a likable and interesting character in Jonah, however, without a strong connection to the story, I would not be the best agent for this project.

Thank you again for the opportunity to read your work, and I wish you the best of luck in finding an agent who is right for you.

Best,

Super Star Agent


I can see some of you looking this over and saying to yourselves, "But this looks like a standard rejection letter. Great, but not for me."

And I'm not denying it's a pretty standard format. But the fact that this agent mentioned that she liked my MC made me exceedingly happy. Why? Because I suck at writing characters.

A great deal of my free time is spent trying to figure out how to write a goddamn character. I'm a plot writer, through and through. Betas are impressed with my ideas and my plots, but not so much my characters. Most of my partial/full rejects state that the agent couldn't connect with my MC.

"But Katie," I can hear you say, "It's still a rejection. Shouldn't you be a little bummed?"

Yeah. Rejection bites the big one, I'm not denying that. Once the high of realizing someone actually likes my MC wears off, I'll hit the chocolates. And even if it's small, and probably just a generic comment, I feel really good about this rejection. I'm allowed to be happy, even if I acknowledge that the agent just said that to make me feel better about the reject.

If there are any agents out there who happen to be passing through: I really appreciate the way you word your rejections. This one in particular made me really happy. Keep up the good work, guys!

Peace,

-Katie

Query for In The Eye of Death

So, since I'm such a lovely person, I thought I'd post my query for In The Eye of Death. I was planning on going through and explaining my thought process and how to write a good query and so on, but I realized: I have no bloody clue how to write a query letter.

I think my query is good. But I only became good after I practiced, practiced, and practiced. Then, just like writing a novel, you find what works and what doesn't. (Usually more straightforward, as you know something is wrong when the rejections start to pile up.)

So here it is, complete without personalization or credits. Enjoy, and make of it what you will:


Dear _________,

Cursed with a weak heart, all Jonah has ever been good at is suffering near-fatal heart attacks. He used to be good at Magik too, before he learned that every cast shortened his already dwindling lifespan.

So Jonah’s decided to retire at the age of fifteen, teaching children a Magik he can’t use until his life runs out. But when his students disappear in a puff of green smoke, the parents decide that Jonah’s to blame. To rescue the children and salvage his honour, Jonah will have to venture into the outside world and hunt down the Order of Grie—a group of religious fanatics who want to use the children’s youth to summon the God of Death.

With every cast, Jonah brings himself one step closer to an early grave. All he ever wanted was to live to thirty, but it’s becoming clear that he won’t survive his rescue mission. When he finally confronts the Order, they promise him a long and healthy life—everything Jonah has ever wanted. All it will cost him is the lives of his students... as well as his soul.

IN THE EYE OF DEATH is a young adult fantasy novel completed at 80 000 words.

Thank you for your time and consideration, ________. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,
Katie Carson

"That's Not Supposed to be Funny!"

Hey y'all. Sorry I haven't been posting much lately. I've fallen into a bit of a funk, in all aspects of writing. I can barely upduate my facebook status (Sadly, not kidding.)

So, today my friend and I went to see The Last Airbender. I am a huge fan of the original cartoon, and I was really excited for this movie.

I won't spoil it for anyone, but my friend and I laughed all the way through the movie. I'm sure the other people thought we were insane, especially during these emotional scenes where we couldn't stop laughing.

Now, as you can tell from the previews, this movie is not a comedy. M Night Shyamalan did not intend for it to be funny. In fact, if you watch the movie, it's supposed to be very serious and dramatic.

Is this a bad thing? I had a great time at the movie. A movie has never made me laugh harder. (Though that was mostly due to how bad it was.)

Now, way back when I was in ninth grade drama, a similiar situation came up. We were forced to write monologues and preform them in front of the whole class, a daunting task for a bunch of fifteen year olds. Now, this one girl I remember was very shy and didn't want to go up. When the drama teacher finally convinced her to go up, she began her monologue talking about how hard it was for her to be a blonde. She said something about not getting blonde jokes and I laughed. I thought it was funny. She became so enraged she refused to continue.

My drama teacher then responded with, "It doesn't matter what type of response you get. Your job as an artist is to put your art out there, and how other people respond is based on their own perception."

I think you get where I'm going now. So, we've all become published authors with big fat paychecks and our work is out in the world. So what happens when someone takes your book and doesn't understand what you're trying to convey? What happens if you have the complete opposite response that we think they should? Of course, none of us want to be hated. But I'm not talking about a reader hating your book. I'm talking about the weirdest interpration of your book you have ever seen.

What if the romance scene makes them angry? What happens if when your heroine dies they laugh? What happens if the heropic climax makes them cry? Does it make you question your worth as a writer? Does it make you wonder if anyone will ever like your book?

Well, of course not! I mean, that was only one reader, right? Surely there are other who will just love and understand your book so completely. There is nothing you can do about this reader. You move on.

So why don't I see the same thing when it comes to literary agents? Why do so many writers place their entire worth as an author on literary agents? Yes, they are important in the process, but so are readers. When that agent isn't working on a contract, isn't talking to publishers, isn't going out to meet editors, when they are sitting at their desk reviewing your manuscript, they are readers.

So, let's say that you recieve a rejection on your full manuscript and you recieve reasons why the agent rejected it, (I can hear the submitting writers laughing from here.) So you review the list, the things that this agent didn't like about your manuscript and that needs improvement. And you think to yourself, "What was this agent thinking? This isn't my book at all!" And you think, surely, positively, they read someone else's book and the email wasn't meant for you, because these changes are proposterous.

So what does it all come down to? Is your manuscript in ruins because you couldn't sell it to that one agent? Would you pull your book off the shelves for that one reader who just didn't get it? Of course not! Because surely, someone else will love the book.

And if no one else loves it, if everyone else thinks you're a fool for writing it, does that mean you have no worth as a writer?

Well, do you love what you've written?

Forget all the nay-sayers and the bring downs: Do you love your book?

If the answer is a yes, then you are a writer. You're a good writer. The true writers are passionate about their work and write what they love despite what anyone else will say.

After all, you cannot control other people's responses to your work. All you can do is, as an artist, create something beautiful and set it free in the world.

Peace,

-Katie

It's a Sad Day (In Wonderland)

I think all authors have trouble when it comes time to say goodbye to a book. That goodbye can come in many forms-- finishing the book, placing it away, finishing a series, ect. For me, it's rewriting.

I hate rewriting books with a passion. Rewriting a scene or a chapter I can do, but when I look at an entire book and am forced to rewrite it, I feel like beating my head against the counter until I see little white stars and fall unconscious.

Rewriting is probably easier than writing the book in the first place, because you've got an idea of what you want it to look, how you want it to play out. But looking at the manuscript and realizing you did all that work and it's going to go out the window is painful.

I wrote DON back in March/April. Since then I left it alone and came back to it several times, but I just couldn't get into it. (If you've been following my blog, DON is the sequel to TED) I've found one of the main reasons why is because of a lack of tension. In the first book, there was tons of tension, and a whole hell of a lot of mystery. But since my characters know who the bad guy is, that takes out the aspect of mystery and I've just really let myself go with the tension.

I'll probably feel a lot better about the (re)writing process when I dive in. After all, I've got a plan, and I know my book will look amazing when its done.

But damn. I think I need to whip out the scotch.

Peace,

-Katie

I Wanna Hear Yours: Why Do You Read/Write YA?

Weeeeeeelcome back for another fabulous round of Katie's infamous: I Wanna Hear Yours! In which you listen to my insane ramblings and I listen to yours.

Today's question on the board: Why do you read/write YA?

I especially want to hear from those of you who are no longer in the 12-18 catagory. Why do we still read YA? Why do we put up with bosses/friends/coworkers/family/estranged neighbours looking down their noses at us for reading the latest teen romance when we're so clearly (oh so very clearly) no longer in high school?

So what is it about this tantalizing (genre? Age group?) that keeps you coming back for more, more, more?

Personally, the reason I love YA so much is because of two main reasons:


1) Pacing


and


2) Firsts.


First, the pacing. (Haha!) Sometimes, (albiet, I will admit, not always) I find myself reading an adult book and I want to beat my head against the table because it's going SO GODDAMN SLOW. (Disclaimer: Katie is not stating that all adult books have slow pacing, or that all YA books have good pacing. Please refrain from throwing tomatoes as it will ruin my nice clean shirt.) So I'm drawn to the quick pacing, the quick wit and the inevitable: "WHY IS EVERYTHING HAPPENING ALL AT ONCE OMIGAWDZOMIBIES AND ISN'T THAT BOY SO CUTE AND OMIGAWDZOMBIES!"

2) Firsts. This is kind of a big one for me. The romance in YA is always so fresh because it's from the perspective of someone who has never experienced romance before. Everything is so raw and sharp because teenagers are experiencing these emotions for the first time. Of course, it doesn't always lead to a happy ending, but I just like how none of the teenagers have yet put up emotional walls like adults do. They don't know how to handle and so sometimes they react without considering the consequences, which makes for great conflict.

And this doesn't just apply to romance. First time having sex, first high school experience, first real world problems, first encounter with drugs and so on and so forth.

Those two catagories can be placed in any sub-genre of YA: fantasy, paranormal, historical, whatever. They almost always have a swift pace (which makes it usually shorter, which, what can you do?) and a series of firsts.

So, contestants, step right up to the mic and SHOW YOUR STUFF. Why are you reading YA? Why are you writing it? Is what you like about it something that applies to all genres of YA or just a few?

You heard my ramblings, now I WANNA HEAR YOURS!

I should get some cheesy theme music to go along with this.

Peace,

-Katie