Flattered or Furious

Fan fiction is defined by Webster's Dictionary as stories involving popular fiction characters that are written by fans and often posted on the Internet.  I first heard the term fan fiction when the Harry Potter series became popular. However, I'm embarrassed to admit I engaged in my own form of fan fiction in junior high school when I took the characters of the S.E. Hinton novel The Outsiders and drafted my own novel.

These days, there are so many variations of fan fiction that it's become quite common, and these stories aren't confined to literary characters. There are fan fiction stories for movies and television shows and even musical acts.

In the right forum, fan fiction can be wildly flattering for an author. Imagine your work and your characters having such an impact on someone that it compels them to create their own story. There is the opposite side though. Imagine your work not being good enough for the reader so as to compel him to create a better one. Then there's an entirely different down side to fan fiction that I've recently found myself the victim of. Yes, I said the victim.

Last year, I published a story online entitled Like You Mean It.  This young adult novel, which was posted for fans to read free of charge, told the love story of seventeen year old recent amputee Darren Jacobs and unpopular teen Danni Singer.  Much to my delight, the story was well received on the site it was posted and consistently ranked in the top ten of the romance and teen fiction categories. Many fans related to Danni Singer and her feelings of inadequacy as well as Darren's similar feelings resulting from the loss of his arm. I was touched by the number of people who contacted me to tell me how the story changed their perspective on the disabled or gave them someone they could relate to.

A few months after the completion of the story, one of my fans contacted me to tell me she believed my story was being plagiarized on another site. Even worse was that it was a Justin Bieber fan fiction site. Not being a Justin Bieber fan that felt like insult to injury. However, I wanted to give the author the benefit of the doubt. If you're a writer, you know how difficult it is to have a truly original idea. Readers can relate to this as well. How many times have you read a book and felt as though it reminded you of another? My fan was adamant my story was being plagiarized. She gave me the name of the author and the story and urged me to check it out.

To see the story in question, I was forced to join the Justin Bieber fan fiction site, something I'm still sore about. It's a good thing I did though. I was appalled by what I found. This story was a blatant rip off of my story, so blatant that the author seems to have lifted passages from work and placed them into her story. In her story, Justin Bieber isn't famous. Instead, he's a basketball player who loses the use of his arm when he and three of his friends are involved in an automobile accident. As Justin struggles with this loss, he develops a friendship with an unpopular girl in school and grows closer to his older brother. In my story, Darren Jacobs is the catcher on the baseball team who loses his arm when he's involved in a car accident with three of his friends. As Darren struggles with the loss of his arm, he befriends an unpopular girl in school and grows closer to his older brother.

I wish I could say the similarities end there, but as I said, the author has passages of dialogue in her novel that are identical to mine. After reading this story, I could see why my fan was so insistent I check it out. 

Since discovering this travesty, I've been working with the administrators of the Justin Bieber fan fiction site to resolve this issue. To date, I've not received what I'd feel is complete vindication. Thus far, they've been slow to deal with my concerns despite their site being very clear that copyright infringement will not be tolerated. Given that it's a Justin Bieber fan fiction site, it could be that I'm at the mercy of a teenage girl who's in over her head when reading my repeated emails demanding something be done before I feel so motivated to pursue legal action.

Since dealing with this, I've also had time to think a lot about how I feel. I was and still am incensed. I shared my work with the public to entertain and impact not to see someone else take credit for it. To see another author receive glowing praise for a story I put my heart and soul into not only angers me but it hurts my feelings. It was suggested to me that I should be flattered. The author liked the story so much she wanted to be the one to get the rave reviews. That's an interesting idea.

I put it to you fans. Should I be flattered or furious? Right now, I'm more furious than flattered, and I suspect I will be for some time.

2013 Here I Come

Let me first say a belated Happy New Year to all of you. 

Since it’s been a few weeks since I last posted, I’m sure some of you are wondering where I’ve been or if I abandoned my blog. Having spent the holidays with my family, I’m recharged and ready to attack 2013 with a new resolve. After this many years in the writing business, I’ve decided it’s time to kick things up a notch.

No, it’s not out with the old and in with the new. If that were the case, I wouldn’t have spent so much of my recent time preparing my entries for my two favorite annual writing contests. That’s right, the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Awards and the Ampersand First Young Adult Novel contest are back, and I’ve entered both.

With the fate of my contest entries out of my hands, it’s time for me to focus on the things I can do something about. It’s time to get my work into the hands of more readers, and I’ve already got a plan for making that happen. Having a plan is useful for any situation but this is especially true for authors looking to make a name for themselves.

There have been a great deal of changes in this industry since I first started out that have made it possible for authors to reach a broader audience, specifically the advent of the e-book and the ability to self publish said book. For those of you who know me, I fought this technology tooth and nail. After breaking down and buying an e-reader, I loved it, and it got me thinking. Maybe it’s time to use this technology to my advantage. Having spent the last two years establishing a large online following, if I do say so myself, I think it’s time to parlay that small success into something greater.  

First and foremost, I need to write a good story that I know my fans will love. Rest assured I’m already on that track. In fact, I’m writing the story many of my fans have asked for. Since I want the story to be a surprise I won’t say anymore, but stay tuned.

This is going to be a year of big changes for me, changes I’m excited to be able to share with all of you in the coming year. 2013 here I come! Hope you're ready because I know I am.

Holy Sh*! It's Christmas

You might not know it, but the title of this blog shares it's name with a lesser known Christmas song. The song is of course a parody, but I had this exact feeling yesterday when I realized the holiday is next week and I haven't wrapped a single one of those presents piled in my closet.

Thinking about the fast approaching holiday also got me thinking about the fact that it's about time for me to sing my standard refrain of All I Want for Christmas. No, I'm not talking about the song. Thankfully, my two front teeth are intact. Instead, I'm talking about making my annual Christmas plea for the one present I have yet to get.

That's right. It's an offer of publication. You know me so well. What can I say? Being a writer means being a dreamer. I still have this glimmer of hope that I'm going to get that Christmas Eve call from my agent in which he tells me that he's heard from a publisher wanting to snap up my next young adult novel. See, what I'd tell you, a dreamer.

I asked for this last year and quite probably the year before that as well. So far I have yet to get my wish. Too bad I can't pull a  Ralphie from A Christmas Story and ask Santa for this gift the same way he asked Santa for his Red Ryder bee-bee gun. If you love this movie as much as I do, you know that Ralphie got his Christmas wish by way of his father playing Santa.

With any luck, my agent can be my Santa Claus and this can finally be the year I get that present of my dreams. Until then, all I have to say is holy sh*! it's Christmas.

Happy Holidays, everyone!

That Old Familiar Sting

Earlier this year I signed with a new agent in the hopes of finding a home for my latest young adult novel, a paranormal offering. For those of you who know me or have read any of my work, you know this is a stretch beyond my norm. However, the agent and his reader really seemed to like it and both felt it could find a place in the market.

The market though is such a fickle thing. Having been a writer for so many years, I know all about the ups and downs and turns in trends. When I wrote my paranormal young adult novel, I wasn’t trying to follow an industry trend hoping to ride the coat tails of those before me. I don’t write with that objective, nor do I like to pigeonhole myself into one genre. While it’s true I lean more toward romantic realism, I’ve been known to pen other genres too. I write the story that comes to me.

Even if I was trying to capitalize on an industry trend, it seems I’m too late. The gist of the feedback my agent has been getting is that paranormal is out. Publishers want realism. I couldn’t have been more delighted to hear that since realism is smack dab in the center of my comfort zone.  I sent my agent a summary of some of the realistic novels I’d written and he asked for two of them, which he promptly sent back telling me to polish them up a bit.

After spending weeks chained to my computer doing round after round of tireless editing, I sent off the final product of the first book with my confidence riding high. Last night, my confidence came crashing to the ground in grand fashion in the form of an email from the agency. I won’t go into the gory details, but the summary is that most of my characters lack definition and seem superficial while my protagonist is too insightful with no apparent reason to be so.

This isn’t the first time my work wasn’t received in the way I’d hoped. For some reason, this time bothered me more than others before it. Maybe because I’ve been at this for so long or maybe because I felt so strongly about the story. I realize writing is a subjective business, but I think this story is better than its being given credit for. I’m also not the only one who thinks so. When I shared this news with my fans, many of them rallied behind me to beg me to disregard what the agent said and self publish this book in print so they could have a paper copy to accompany their digital copy. One even said she was a beta reader for a time and of the thousands of books she’s read, mine was one that stuck out in her mind because it was so well written.

So, here I am a day later, still feeling the effects of the old familiar sting of rejection and feeling it more than I have before. Is there anything I can do to temper that feeling? You bet there is, but don’t ask me what that is. I still haven’t figured it out yet, but I’ll let you know when I do.

He Said/She Said

For the past few weeks, I’ve spent every free moment I have at my laptop. I wish I could say I was consumed with the fire of creating a new novel. I wish I could, but the truth is I’ve been doing my least favorite part of my job as a writer. I’ve been doing the thing that makes writing feel like a job; editing.

Believe it or not, writing the novel is the easy part. With enough motivation and the time to go with it, I can produce a halfway decent novel in fairly short order. That might sound like an impressive accomplishment, but the luster fades when you realize that rough draft is very rough.

Writing a novel is about more than telling the story. It’s about telling it well and making the readers feel as if they’re a part of the story. The only way to give readers the story they deserve is to edit that story, and editing is so much more than making sure there aren’t any grammar, spelling or punctuation mistakes. It’s about character and plot development and a story that flows well with good scene transitions. It’s about being entertaining and finding a way to give the readers enough for them to understand and empathize but not too much to lose their interest.

Like writing a story, editing a story can be somewhat subjective. Case in point; the said tag debate. The said tag is what writers use to identify the speakers in a conversation. For example, “I don’t like beets,” John said. “Why not?” Mary asked. And so on and so forth.

There are some editors who will tell you not to use the said tags when only two characters are speaking. Not only do too many said tags get to be tedious, but they demean the readers who are smart enough to know which character is speaking. Conversely, some editors will tell writers to use those said tags often so as not to confuse the readers. This very thing happened to me. The last editor I worked with insisted I minimize the use of the pesky said tags so that I could improve the appearance and flow of the story. I applied this model to subsequent stories only to be told by my newest agent that I wasn’t using them enough which was creating confusion in my novel. Color me surprised!

As if that wasn’t enough of a shock, it was also recently suggested to me that I needed to confine my said tag identifiers to the words said, asked and whispered. If you haven’t guessed, the said tag identifier is the word that tells readers what type of dialogue has been spoken. John said he doesn’t like beets. Said is the identifier. Mary asked why he didn’t like them. Asked is the identifier.

When I first started out as a writer, these were the most common identifiers I used. Then I started to get feedback from editors who said I needed to show readers how the characters were interacting. To do that, I needed to expand on my said tag identifiers. Instead of saying John asked where Mary was, I could say that John demanded to know where she was. Then Mary could retort it was none of his business instead of it being something she simply said.

Now it seems I’m back to square one and back to the basics of said, asked and whispered. As frustrating as this is, and I’m not going to deny it’s a bit frustrating, it’s part of the editing process.

More importantly, I’m going to defer to my agent on this one. If my agent says this is what publishers want then I’ll spend all the time necessary making these changes. I might be good at telling stories, but my agent is skilled at knowing what publishers want and giving it to them. Funny though, how it all comes down to a case of he said/she said.

A Humbling Reminder

I just wanted to let you know that Like You Mean It has been one of the BEST stories I've read on here. I was actually debating on whether I wanted to go to vet school or occupational therapy school, and because of this story I chose OT school so I can with with people who have to use a prosthetic limb. So, thank you for helping be the reason I"m going into such a fantastic field.

A few days ago, I received the preceding message from one of my fans. The story she's referring to, Like You Mean It, is one I've posted online at a website called Wattpad. It follows the journey of a young man who loses his arm in a car accident. Not only must he learn to cope with being disabled, but he has to learn how to handle the reactions of others. It's a tough road for a seventeen year old kid whose peers once voted him most athletic and nicest smile. 

As I've said before, when I first started out as a writer, my dream was to have a line of books featuring disabled teens in leading, romantic roles. I wanted these teens to have a role model rather than being relegated to supporting characters if they weren't omitted altogether. I wanted to touch hearts and change lives.

You might recall from my previous postings, both here and on Twitter, I'm a huge fan of the Wattpad website. It's been dubbed "the You Tube for e-books" and offers writers the chance to post their work for review by readers. I've often said writers, whether seasoned pros or just starting out, should check out this site. Although writers don't receive monetary compensation for the work they post, the honest feedback fans provide is an invaluable tool for improving a writer's craft.

After receiving this fan's message, I'm even more convinced of the virtues of Wattpad. I'm still waiting to realize my dream on a larger scaled, but I feel one step closer. Beyond that is an even bigger picture, one that speaks to the amount of influence a writer can wield. Something about Like You Mean It spoke to this young woman and convinced her of her calling in life. It's a humbling reminder of how much writing means not only to the writer but to the reader as well.

That's Not So Bad

Earlier this year, I signed with a new literary agent. By new, I mean new to me and not new to the business. I feel the need to qualify that statement because there are some in the industry who warn writers away from getting involved with new agents. However, that’s a topic for another time. My intent is only to remind my loyal readers that I managed to snag a great agent earlier in the year.

I was signed on the strength of one of my paranormal novels. For those of you who know me, or if you’ve read this blog before, you know the paranormal genre isn’t my first love. I’ve always been more of a realism with a touch of romance kind of writer. The problem with that was when I first tried to get my realistic novels into the hands of publishers, the timing wasn’t right. Teens wanted vampire novels. I wrote one only to be told it couldn’t compete with the existing vampire titles. Down but not out, I changed my tactic and wrote an entirely different paranormal novel whose subject matter scared away potential agents and publishers. Not willing to give up, I tried again and put a softer spin on a different paranormal novel. It worked. I found the agent I’m working with now.

Since signing with this agent, he’s been working hard to get this book into the hands of the right publishers. So far, they’ve all passed, but it’s not over yet. It’s still under review with several other publishers so you never know what could happen. In the meantime, my agent has forwarded me the rejection letters. Though he’s obligated to do so, I could tell he felt bad doing it when he prefaced the email with the words “no one likes to read rejection letters”.

My response to rejection letters depends on the day. There are some days when I barely register a reaction and other days when I cry and still other days when I go off on a long rant about the difficulties of this industry. Interestingly enough, the day I opened this email, I didn’t do any of these things. Believe it or not, my faith in my talent was actually buoyed by the comments from the editors. The most negative comment came from only one person who didn’t feel a connection to my protagonist. Most everyone else felt the plot was interesting and liked the characters and praised my storytelling ability.

It seemed the problem didn’t lie with me. Once again, it’s a matter of timing. You’re not going to believe this, but the young adult market is flooded with paranormal novels. Publishers are turning those away and looking toward realistic novels. I am absolutely thrilled to hear this since realistic plots are what I consider my bread and butter. As we speak, I’m in the process of editing one to send to my agent to see if it’s strong enough to submit to publishers. With any luck, I can catch this train before it takes off. Until its ready, my agent will continue to make the rounds with my paranormal novel.

Nobody likes to read rejection letters. True enough, but those letters weren’t so bad this time around.