World Building from a Reader's Perspective

I recently finished a perfectly adequate YA urban fantasy. The voice was fine, the plot was fine, and the characters were--you guessed it--fine. But when I turned that last page and set the book down, I didn’t make a mad dash to the computer to research the author and find out when the next one would be coming out. It just hadn’t grabbed me. And I think a lot of that had to do with a less-talked-about element of storytelling: world building.

First, a disclaimer: I know as much about world building as your average unpublished writer of all things fantasy and science fiction, so this post is not meant to be prescriptive so much as observational. These are simply a few things I’ve noticed as a reader. Feel free to disagree with me all you want (and take my observations with a truckload of salt).

All right. So I don’t want to talk about the stories that don’t work, because that’s just rude. Instead, I want to talk about those stories that do, and what better examples do we have than the two most recognizable, most successful book brands in the world? Yep, I’m talking about the Harry Potter and Twilight series (serieses? seri?).

The Simple Approach Say what you will about Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight series, but her world building was one of the books’ stronger points. I feel perfectly confident in admitting that the world of TWILIGHT totally sucked me in. For the few hours I read it (and it was just a few), I was completely willing to believe granite-skinned vampires lived (sort of) among us.

And why was that? Because the world of TWILIGHT was so similar to reality. Except for one tiny detail, Bella’s world could have been my own. As a reader, I didn’t have to remember a bunch of new rules or keep track of a bunch of new places. I just had to let myself be swept up by it all. Over the course of the series, a few more world-building elements trickled in (like the existence of werewolves and the Volturi, and the bloody history of vampire turf wars), but these didn’t change the real world much, either. The elegance of TWILIGHT’s world building lay in its simplicity.

The Complex Approach J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, on the other hand, lies at the opposite end of the spectrum. Think about all the new words Ms. Rowling introduced to our vocabularies (like Muggles and Quidditch and Expelliarmus, oh, my), and all the new places she took us (like Diagon Alley and Platform Nine and Three-quarters and, of course, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry). The world of HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE was just so dense, and each book thereafter only added to the density.

And therein lies the key to this more complex approach: The writer doesn’t give everything away all at once. When I first read HARRY POTTER AND THE SORCERER’S STONE, I truly felt as if I were stepping into a world that had never existed before--and only catching those glimpses of it that were vital to my understanding of the present story. A thousand more places and a million more stories existed in that world, but Ms. Rowling whisked me right past them without bothering to explain. And that was how I knew her story world was so full and developed. Because I sensed she could have told me so much more, but, for the story’s sake, didn’t.

Note to self: Never underestimate the importance of world building. Because it can be what makes the difference between a good book and a great one.

So what are some of your favorite story worlds? And what makes them so memorable?

(Work-in-) Progress Report: Bob

Word count (to the nearest thousand): 63,000 (barely)
Status: Finished with the third draft!
Attitude: Relieved

I usually don’t post on weekends, but I just wanted to drop in to say…I’m finished! Bob is currently sitting in the inboxes of my first two beta readers, and I couldn’t be more excited.

As for my last (work-in-) progress report, I gave up on the whole reading-Bob-out-loud thing. I decided that should be one of the last edits I do, and so that out-loud read is still several months away.

What have I been doing, then, this past week and a half? Filling in all the little holes, as I mentioned in my last report, and using the find-and-replace feature to get rid of too-common words and phrases. I’ve never used that technique, but now I can’t imagine NOT using it. (Yesterday, for example, I eliminated about two hundred “justs,” “rights,” and “backs.”) I’m sure I missed a few, but I'll leave it to my beta readers to point out the next several hundred to me:)

And speaking of cutting words, I’ve cut some the past few weeks. Bob was at 59,000 words by the end of the first draft, up to 66,000 somewhere in the second, and now he sits at around 63,000 (even though this third draft has been largely about ADDING words). For the most part, the words I’ve cut have been unnecessary dialogue and action tags. (“Hi, my name is Krista, and I’m a dialogue and action tagger…”) Sometimes the characters just need to speak for themselves, you know?

Well, that’s all for me. Back to the manuscript I’ve been beta-reading for the past more-than-a-month…

Bob Meets Wordle

Subtitle: “My Worst Fears Just Confirmed”

There. I just said it. I have a just problem. It’s just that just is such an easy word to throw into a sentence--just about any sentence, really. In fact, if you just think about it, you could probably write a whole book in which just about every other word is “just.”

Ahem. So I finally finished plugging up all of Bob’s little holes. (That is, I finally finished filling in EVERY blank, so now there are no more missing words). But before I did the rest of my tweaks, I decided to plug him into Wordle to see what word cloud popped out. And “just” really popped.

As far as I understand it, Wordle takes whatever words you give it and arranges them artistically, making the most common words most prominent. It ignores words like “and” and “the”--pretty much all conjunctions, articles, pronouns, and minor prepositions--and focuses on the important ones. Like “just.”

So what other too-big words popped up? “Back,” “like,” “one,” “still,” “looked,” “right,” “thought,” and “know.” I plan to do a find-and-replace search for each of these words (and several other words and phrases I know I overuse), and then I think I’ll be ready for my first round of beta readers.

So what about you? If you plugged your WIP into Wordle, what words would you expect to pop?

The Pertinent Posts Award

Thank you, Myrna, for this happy award. To claim it, I have to tell you what I look for in a blog, then pass it on to seven other bloggers.

My favorite blogs are all written by writers, and writers who are at the same stage of their writing careers as I am, more or less. Also, these writers write books I’d love to beta-read (and I’d love for them to beta-read my books). In fact, that’s pretty much my bright-line: Do I want to read this writer’s work--and do I want her (or him, but usually her) to read mine?

So here’s the list:

A.L. Sonnichsen of The Green Bathtub
Authoress of Miss Snark’s First Victim
Blanche King of Writing, Queries and the Occasional Headache
Josin L. McQuein of My Bloggish Blog Thing
Kayeleen Hamblin of Kayeleen’s Creation Corner
Kelly Bryson of Book Readress
Liesl of Writer Ropes and Hopes

(And just in case you missed the link at the beginning of the post, don’t forget to check out Myrna Foster of Night Writer, who gave me the award.)

There are a bunch of other great blogs out there--in fact, I’m sure you’re thinking of a few right now. So which writers’ blogs would make your list? I look forward to finding a few more good links in the comments…

Interview with an Agent: Catherine Drayton

Today’s interview features Catherine Drayton of InkWell Management. Prepare to be impressed by Ms. Drayton’s client list:) Happy reading!

KV: How did you get into agenting?

CD: I’m a trial lawyer by profession and worked in the areas of libel and copyright. When I moved to the United States I decided to take the opportunity to follow my passion for books. My first job was with a scout for foreign publishing houses and then I was lucky enough to be offered as job as an assistant to Richard Pine who taught me the business of agenting. I’ve been an agent at Pine Associates, which is now part of InkWell, since 1998.

KV: How would you summarize your personal agenting philosophy?

CD: I believe in quality not quantity! I’ve been very fortunate to represent some extraordinary writers such as Markus Zusak, John Flanagan, Beth Hoffman, Malla Nunn and Becca Fitzpatrick, so I think very carefully before I sign a new client.

KV: What do you expect from an agent-author relationship?

CD: Honesty, professionalism and a sense of humor! I try to keep my list small so each client feels as if they are my top priority.

KV: What client work do you have coming out soon? What drew you to those writers and/or projects?

CD: CLEO by Helen Gentry is an extraordinary memoir about the resilience of a mother and the healing power of a tiny kitten which has already been a bestseller in the UK, Australia and France.

In the more literary YA genre two novels: LEVERAGE by Joshua Cohen, an utterly gripping story about high school football and bullying (very few writers can really capture the voice of older teenage boys) and JASPER JONES by Craig Silvey which is an antipodean version of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD.

I’m quite drawn to humor in middle-grade novels so am excited to see how JACOB WONDERBAR AND THE COSMIC SPACE KAPOW by Nathan Bransford and ALICE-MIRANDA AT SCHOOL by Jacquie Harvey fair.

KV: What genres do you represent?

CD: Women’s fiction, literary fiction, crime, world literature, young adult, middle-grade and picture books.

KV: What genres do you definitely NOT represent?

CD: I don’t represent much non-fiction (except memoirs), thrillers or science fiction.

KV: What query pet peeves and/or pitfalls should writers avoid when querying you?

CD: A well written query letter is wonderfully persuasive!

KV: What are you looking for in a manuscript right now?

CD: A vivid imagination and an original and compelling voice.

KV: What’s the best way to query you?

CD: By e-mail.

Thanks again, Ms. Drayton, for these responses. And to all you picture book writers, I apologize for neglecting the follow-up question--I didn’t realize until just now that I’d forgotten to ask whether she was interested in picture book writers who aren’t illustrators (although the general consensus among the other agents has been a resounding, “Yes!”). I’ll do better next time.

Thanks, everyone, for stopping by!

P.S. I had to look up antipodean, too, so I'll save you the trouble:) It means "on the other side of the world."

(Work-in-) Progress Report: Bob

Word count (to the nearest thousand): 65,000 (and falling)
Status: Reading him out loud
Attitude: Defeated

I thought I was almost there. I thought I was just about to send him off to betas. But now that I’m reading him out loud, I’m finding parts that are just AWFUL. They roll off the tongue about as well as pond scum. And it’s killing me. It’s killing me that I’m suddenly so far away again. It’s. Killing. Me.

Any advice? Encouragement? Commiseration?

(In lieu of flowers, please send chocolate ice cream.)

Happy Birthday, I-gots!

Today is I-gots’s third birthday. (I-gots is what my son called himself up until a few months ago.) Actually, his birthday probably should have been yesterday, on the third anniversary of my last prenatal checkup. When we went in for that appointment, I was already a few days overdue and my stomach was, well, shrinking. I told the doctor I felt smaller, so he measured my belly. The week before, I’d been a thirty-six; that day, I was a thirty-four.

So he fired up the ultrasound, slathered the cold jelly across my stomach. Jabbed the wand into my side and, for a whole minute, maybe two, just stared at the screen. When I asked him what he was doing, he said, “I’m trying to find the amniotic sac, to measure the amount of amniotic fluid. But there’s so little left I can’t even get a reading.”

I asked him what that meant. He said, “It means we’re going to have a baby.”

We discussed the possibility of both a vaginal and Caesarean birth. I really wanted to deliver vaginally, and he was willing to let me try. But he warned us it might not work--since there was so little fluid left, and that fluid is kind of like the shock absorber during labor, the baby might not tolerate it.

A nurse guided us through a labyrinth of stairs and hallways to Labor and Delivery. Honey Bear went out to get our bag. (We’d sort of had a feeling something like this would happen). They checked me in, hooked me up to all the monitors. Started the Pitocin drip.

Pitocin, which is manufactured oxytocin (the hormone that triggers contractions), must have been invented by a sadist. Within an hour, I was contracting every two or three minutes--EVERY two or three minutes--for about a minute at a time. After a few hours, a nurse checked my progress. I’d only dilated to about a two.

More Pitocin, more contractions. No more dilatation. The nurse convinced the doctor to turn down the Pitocin for the night, so I could get some sleep. She even brought me Ambien (which didn’t work). I passed the night in a strange place between asleep and awake. Between excited and terrified.

By five the next morning, I’d been laboring for more than twelve hours--and I was up to about a three. I was frustrated. I was exhausted. And the doctor wanted to insert a more reliable fetal heart monitor, one that takes its reading directly from the baby’s scalp. I knew I couldn’t handle that without an epidural.

The needle went in; the pain came out. It was glorious. I was certain I could go another twelve or thirteen hours--and that’s precisely what I did.

By ten-thirty, I was a five, maybe a six. I felt hopeful. By two, I was a five, maybe a six. I felt less hopeful. By five, I was—you guessed it—still a five. (Nobody really bothered to call it a six anymore.) I’d been in labor for twenty-five hours. And I-gots’s heart rate was dropping.

The doctor was amazed he’d lasted as long as he had. Still, he strongly urged us to think about a C-section. We thought about it for all of two-point-three seconds. Of course we’d do the C-section. Of course we’d do whatever was best for the baby.

It’s a strange thing to sign on a dotted line that reads, in big, bold letters, “You know, what you’re about to do might kill you, but we really hope think it won’t.” And it’s a strange thing to let yourself be wheeled to the OR, when you’ve never had so much as a broken pinky, and sliced open wide enough to let a whole person through. Still, it didn’t seem strange in that moment; it seemed like the only thing to do.

A few minutes later, at five-twenty-seven in the evening, little I-gots was born. (And he was little, or at least skinny--six pounds, six ounces, and twenty-one inches long.) And my whole world changed. I’d never been a baby person, but suddenly, I was. I’d never felt the need to protect anything before, but all at once, I did.

But of all the things I gave him, I-gots gave me something, too. He gave me naptime, three or four hours every day that were well and truly mine. He gave me a chance to write (again). He gave me back my words.

And for that I’ll be forever grateful.

Interview with an Agent: Lauren MacLeod

I’ve got another good one for you. (In fact, a few of these answers reminded me of a few of you specifically:) ) Today’s installment of “Interview with an Agent” features Lauren MacLeod of The Strothman Agency. See you on the other side.

KV: How did you get into agenting?

LM: I started as an assistant to Wendy Strothman at the Strothman Agency. I was so very lucky to get a position at a small agency where I could get my hands dirty and learn from someone as accomplished and knowledgeable about the industry as Wendy--she was and still is fantastic about showing me the ropes. I had some success finding projects in the slush pile and was eventually given the opportunity to start developing my own list.

In college I’d interned in the publicity department at Da Capo and then in the editorial department at Beacon Press--I think agenting is a pretty natural mix of those positions.

KV: How would you summarize your personal agenting philosophy? What do you expect from an agent-author relationship?

LM: The Strothman Agency works closely with our clients to get a project ready for submission and we are always looking to help them build careers--not just sell one book. As an agent I’m always looking to fall in love with a manuscript--I’m really invested in the books and the authors I take on.

KV: What client work do you have coming out soon? What drew you to those writers and/or projects?

LM: Very next will be REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS by Hélène Boudreau (December 1st from Sourcebooks Jabberwocky). I fell in love with the voice of this project from the query letter, so when the first few pages of the manuscript actually made me laugh out loud I was hooked. Funny takes a lot of skill and Hélène makes it look effortless.

In addition to being talented writers, all of my clients also have this indefinable charisma about them which I think is increasingly important as authors are being asked to step out from behind their desks.

KV: What genres do you represent? What genres do you definitely NOT represent?

LM: I represent young adult and middle grade--I don’t take on chapter or picture books, though I will represent them if one of my YA/MG clients has something fantastic. I’m probably not the best for high fantasy.

KV: What query pet peeves and/or pitfalls should writers avoid when querying you?

LM: Not following guidelines. There is so much information out there and so many agents writing really fantastically helpful blogs that there is no excuse for not doing your research before querying.

KV: What are you looking for in a manuscript right now?

LM: I’m always hungry for books that make me laugh and increasingly I’m looking for contemporary YA, especially romance.

KV: What’s the best way to query you?

LM: I take both e-mail and snail mail submissions, but I prefer e-mail (strothmanagency@gmail.com). Our most accurate submission guidelines are always on our website at www.strothmanagency.com/submission-guidelines.

Thanks again, Ms. MacLeod, for these responses. I think we’ll all be checking out REAL MERMAIDS DON’T WEAR TOE RINGS in a few months--who could walk past that title and not pick up the book?

Best of luck to all you queriers! And have a great weekend, everyone!