Hello Everyone-- We're very excited to let you know that we've started a new blog! What does that mean for you? Well, tons of fun content, recurring features like, "What We're Reading!" and "Writer Fuel," plus an inside look at all the OLL happenings.
So head on over to the new URL, make sure to bookmark it, and come back frequently!
We'd like to welcome Nancy Smith, our new Community Liaison. Once again, we had Candace ask our new hire some deep questions.
Tell us a bit about yourself.
I grew up in Idaho and went to college in Seattle. I have a degree in philosophy, so I sit around and think a lot. I lived in South Africa for a while and worked on a literacy program at a nonprofit in Cape Town. I headed back to school where I picked up my Masters in Media Studies in New York and worked with a bunch of magazines as a designer and writer. I really wanted to get my MFA in Creative Writing and write a novel, so I moved to San Francisco where I’m half way through my MFA at USF. I write a lot, do a lot of graphic design, and edit a small art and literary magazine. I really love to bake. I am trying to perfect my favorite cakes and pies, and I make really great peach cobbler. I plan on filling the OLL office with sugary deliciousness on a regular basis!
Have you ever done NaNoWriMo before?
I have not! I feel like I’m an impostor. Every year I’ve thought about it and I haven’t. I have written two really crappy novels, but not in November.
Any ideas for this year’s novel?
I don’t have actual ideas, but I know it’ll be something weird—something whimsical, fantastical, and strange. I don’t want to write some memoir or a realistic story that is vaguely about my own life. I’m thinking I need to create some crazy characters with superpowers.
If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
I don’t know…there are too many great superpowers to choose from! It would be really cool to stop time for everyone else while you could keep doing stuff. It would be incredibly convenient to put the world on hold, go about your business, and then start it up again.
What are you most looking forward to doing here at the Office of Letters and Light?
Everything! I feel like this is such a dream job in its entirety that I’m really excited to be a part of this organization. I can jump in and help out with so many things. Of course I’m excited about managing the MLs, but I’m also really excited about improving our blog and other communication opportunities. Finally, I’m looking forward to just seeing NaNoWriMo go through its process this November, to work with people and watch these novels get born. I love that we’re all about inspiration and being creative for the sake of being creative, and I’m excited to inspire people to write!
To help you all get to know our new Young Writers Program Director Chris Angotti, we had our rocking intern Candace ask Chris some really important questions.
What’s your favorite way to spend your free time?
I live in Berkeley, so I like to hang around town and go out to local restaurants. I like record shopping, going to movies, watching TV, and running. I like buying good food at farmers’ markets and cooking it. And of course, I like writing.
Have you done NaNoWriMo before? Had you even heard about it before applying for this job?
I’d been hearing about it for years, probably starting in about 2001, mostly on blogs of people who were doing it. But at the time I was in college, and then I was in grad school, and then I was teaching, so it didn’t seem didn’t seem realistic for me. Now, I’m finally forced to!
Any ideas what your novel’s going to be about this year?
Oh gosh… I think I’m going to take Chris Baty’s advice: Start with nothing and see what comes out of it.
And Script Frenzy? We hear there might be a screenplay from the dark recesses of your past that someday might see the light of day?
I like to keep my checkered past as out of the spotlight as I can, but I think I may be able to put something together. Maybe a musical biopic about my fourth-grade rap career? I used to write screenplays with my friends in high school, but nothing ever really got completed... It would be nice to finish a movie script that kept some of that crazy teenage spirit. Probably with fewer walruses as major characters.
What’s the coolest thing you’ve done in the last five years?
That’s an outrageous question. You need to give me a moment, because I’ve done so many cool things in the last five years… Last summer, I drove across the country from New York to Berkeley when I was relocating. Over that year, including that road trip, I was in fifteen states. Otherwise, I was mostly busy teaching… Which is cool by itself, but in a different way.
What did you teach?
I spent three years in New York City teaching middle school and high school English.
When you were five, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I really wanted to be a game show host or an explorer—oftentimes I would combine the two into some crazy outfit or costume to wear around. I would be holding a microphone and have binoculars strapped to my belt. I’m not sure what kind of game show that would be, but it seemed really awesome at the time.
What are you most looking forward to doing here at the Office of Letters and Light?
I’m looking forward to working on the Young Writers Program websites for both NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy, and making them really teacher-friendly. I want to continue to expand them, to make them more interesting and exciting and fun—not only for educators, but also for students. I think that’s my first priority.
1. When Chris is in a weird mood (which is often), he likes to speak in foreign languages. Sometimes they are real foreign languages. Sometimes they are fictional. It is particularly challenging when he decides to speak in Jawa. Or whatever language Jabba the Hut speaks. It’s not much more convenient when he speaks in German since nobody else speaks any German, and French is only marginally better since my French is mediocre at best. Often, he doesn’t speak the language either, but he makes up for it with an outrageous fake accent.
2. Lindsey and I share a deep and abiding love for Disney music that nobody else in the office is quite as keen on. This means we’ll often both be listening to the Disney Pandora station on our headphones and sending particularly good lyrics to each other over Google Chat. This also means that when we’re alone in the office, we immediately plug in the rock cord that connects to the communal speakers and have a singalong.
3. Dan really gets into music. Sometimes it’s on his headphones, sometimes it’s on the speakers, sometimes it’s in his head. It doesn’t matter what the source, there are times when it gets the best of him and he has to bust out dancing. Unexpected Dan fact: he is an awesome dancer.
4. Tavia is an owlcaholic. No matter how much you think you love owls, Tavia loves them more. She has a giant owl behind her desk, owl jewelry, owl clothing…if it has an owl on it, Tavia will love it. Lindsey and I bought her a bottle of owl tequila for her birthday.
5. Friday jams are awesome. Every Friday afternoon, Dan cues up the Friday jams playlist and we all rock out to some awesome music of perhaps-questionable quality. I have no idea how this got started, but it rules. I suggest starting a Friday jam tradition in your own office or home. The music choices are not always so harmonious: Chris really loves to sing Christmas carols. In June. We retaliate by making him listen to the entire Moulin Rouge soundtrack.
6. Jen’s great unrealized ambition in life was to play Tinkerbell at Disney World. She would in fact make an excellent Tink, what with her spitfire ways and small stature, but we are very glad she decided to run Script Frenzy instead. However, if anyone is looking for an evenings and weekends Tinkerbell, I can definitely endorse Jen.
7. Jezra is a font of interesting trivia, often about language. You’d think that in an office full of wordy types, the tech guy wouldn’t be the one with the broadest knowledge of etymology, but he totally schools the rest of us all the time. (Who knew that “sinister” actually refers to handedness? Jez knew!)
8. Moving next door to a bakery was perhaps not the wisest move. It is a rare day that at least two people aren’t getting a cookie, a piece of pie, cobbler, scones…the list goes on. Delicious sweet treats within fifteen steps: lethal! Fortunately the new office also has stairs, so we can run up and down them a few dozen times to make up for the inevitable scarfing of baked goods.
9. There are some funny little language quirks here at the OLL. Since benevolent Tom Selleck overlooks us, sometimes his name is taken in vain when something goes wrong. (Try it! If you’re mad about something, shake your fist and yell “Selleck!” It’s surprisingly satisfying.) “Pants!” is also a common exclamation when things do not go as planned. We like to make up words and then cling furiously to the idea that it is a real word. There are also puns flying all over creation pretty much all the time. We do like our puns.
10. There is a grocery store a little way down the road, about a five-minute drive, called the Berkeley Bowl. It has many delicious lunch options. If anyone is ever driving to Berkeley Bowl, there is immediately a carful and several additional orders from the people staying behind. Then we walk from the car to the store all in a row and like to pretend we’re in a gang or about to burst into a musical number. Regardless of what we’re having for lunch that day, the first stop is always Cheese Island for a cheese sample. (I don’t have a car here, except for rare days when my roommate lends me hers, so I’m mostly a Berkeley Bowl mooch.)
I could go on for a long time about what an amazing two months I’ve had here at OLL, but I will spare you all my ineloquent ramblings. Suffice it to say, it’s been two of the best months of my life, spent with the best group of coworkers I could ever have asked for. I have never laughed so hard in my life, and I have never had a job I loved so much. Thank you to the OLL staff and all the NaNoWriMo and Script Frenzy participants that I’ve interacted with here, on Facebook, on Twitter, and at events. You’re the best.
We’ve mentioned him in passing in a few places, but you have not been formally introduced to Jezra! Jez is our new web developer here at the Office of Letters and Light, and we thought we’d take this opportunity to tell you a little more about him.
Jezra is a Back to the Future jacket-wearing, spectacular sideburn-sporting tech guru with a knack for playing the bagpipes and a determination to rid the world of anti-left-handed language. After eight years at an educational software company, he found himself at the Office of Letters and Light shortly before Script Frenzy 2010.
Although he was thrown into the deep end right before event launch and left to interpret someone else’s code, Jez not only worked with Dan to maintain Script Frenzy’s largest, most stable year ever, but simultaneously completed his first script.
A proud resident of Petaluma, Jez soon learned about the time management skills required to succeed at Script Frenzy, and advises would-be script writers to make the time right from the start so as to avoid the scramble he faced. Although his last minute victory was exciting, he feels it was an unnecessary stress that may have taken several years off his life.
Jez harbors a desire to rent the garage behind his apartment, build a boat, and sail the boat five miles down the Petaluma River to Papa’s Taverna, get a glass of retsina, and then sail home. Jez is an avid science fiction and fantasy reader and is looking forward to the challenges and excitement that NaNoWriMo will undoubtedly present. He would love to know if you would let him stay on your boat.
For most NaNoWriMo participants, the Office of Letters and Light is a mythical place, on par with Hogwarts and that treehouse the Keebler elves live in. While most people have a general idea of what emerges from such places, few ever actually get to go inside.
No longer, Wrimos. My name is Sarah Mackey. I am a Wrimo. A Municipal Liaison. And as of today, I’m the new intern at the Office of Letters and Light.
I’ll be here in the Office for the next two months, doing my practicum in Public Relations with the delightful staff of OLL. And while I’m here, I’ll be giving you fine people an insider’s perspective on how the magic happens.
Before we get into all the juicy behind-the-scenes action, let me tell you a little more about myself. Some of you may know me by my forum name, SarahJanet. I’ve been participating in NaNoWriMo since 2002, and I’ve been the Municipal Liaison for Edmonton, Alberta, Canada since 2003. (Shout out to the Edmowrimos!) Last year I joined the OLL staff to work on the Come Write In library outreach program and help with the Night of Writing Dangerously.
Once I discovered that my Public Relations diploma required an internship, I immediately thought of OLL. Many, many hours of visa paperwork later, I arrived here in the sunny Bay Area. I’m here for eight weeks, and I’ll be working on NaNoWriMo outreach and some other exciting things. I will also be working on not getting sunburned while waiting for the bus.
You’ll be hearing a lot from me over the next few months, and I’d love to hear from you! If you have burning questions about life at OLL, let me know. I’ll also be working on the NaNoWriMo Facebook and Twitter pages, so if you have a great idea about how we should be using those resources, please do share it so I can steal it from you and claim credit. (Just kidding. I’ll totally steal it, but I’ll give you credit.)
Make sure to become a Fan of our Facebook page and follow us on Twitter to get all the latest news and insider tidbits from my time here, and please feel free to share any advice on adjusting to living on top of a giant hill when you come from the Canadian prairies. Or just say hi!
-Sarah
The time has come to send pep talk requests for NaNoWriMo 2010! But first, I ask you: Who do you want, more than anyone else, to pen a pep talk this year?
Here are the authors we’ve already received pep from in the past (and won’t be bothering again for a while):
Piers Anthony
Kelley Armstrong
Julianna Baggott
Lynda Barry
Gayle Brandeis
Meg Cabot
Peter Carey
Kristin Cashore
Janet Fitch
Jasper Fforde
Neil Gaiman
Sue Grafton
Sara Gruen
Brian Jacques
Maureen Johnson
Gail Carson Levine
Robin McKinley
Garth Nix
Naomi Novik
Katherine Paterson
Tamora Pierce
Philip Pullman
Deanna Raybourn
Tom Robbins
Jonathan Stroud
And here are the staff favorites that we‘re already planning to ask:
Nick Hornby
Holly Black
Jonathan Lethem
Susan Cooper
Michael Chabon
Kate DiCamillo
Dave Eggers
Anne Patchett
Jonathan Safran Foer
Anne Lamott
Louis de Bernieres
Lori Moore
Daniel Handler
Natalie Goldberg
Haruki Murakami
Mercedes Lackey
T.C. Boyle
Aimee Bender
Don DeLillo
Ben Marcus
Junot Diaz
Colum McCann
Chang-rae Lee
Zadie Smith
We can’t wait to see who you add to the list!
Welcome to another installment of "I Sold My NaNoWriMo Novel!" For today's Q&A I talked with Rachael Herron, who's debut NaNo novel How to Knit a Love Song
Firstly (and I'm so sorry to make you do this), could you give us a one-sentence overview of the plot for How To Knit A Love Song?
Abigail intends to turn an unexpected windfall into a knitting shop and spend her days spinning and purling, but she's not welcomed by Cade, the sheep rancher who views the city girl as an unwanted interloper—and when the past Abigail thought she left behind comes calling, she'll have to trust her handsome adversary with much more than just her heart.
You wrote the first draft of How To Knit A Love Song for NaNoWriMo 2006. How is the novel that HarperCollins is publishing this week different than the version you first penned four and a half years ago? How many months (or years) of revision did it take you to feel truly finished with your book?
It's astonishingly similar, in many respects. The first half, in particular, has been revised of course, but retains its original idea and shape. It kind of blows my mind that when I sat down that November first, thinking that I would just have fun with this crazy idea of a knitter and a sheep rancher, wrangling over land and love, that those ideas would come to be a real book, on real bookshelves. Of course, it took a long time for it all to come together. I put it away at the end of November at just over 50,000 words. The next spring I pulled it out and added about 15,000 words to finish it. I started sending it out to agents, and in fall, my new agent and I worked together to add the suspense subplot which now weaves through the book, which added another 20,000 words. So it was more than a year after NaNoWriMo before the book was complete enough to sell (and then there were editor revisions which followed, but those were thrilling, I thought!).
How much planning did you do before sitting down to start writing on November 1?
I started by jotting down about thirty plot points on note cards. I thought that would get me through me thirty days, which was completely dead wrong, since by day seven, the story had spiraled out of my control and the cards were no longer good for anything but setting my coffee cup on. I learned that November that I'm a pantser, not a plotter (meaning I really write by the seat of my pants, rather than plotting things out meticulously, which can be both a blessing and a curse). But the crazy things that happened because I had no idea what to do next—like when Abigail spontaneously buys a couple of alpacas and doesn't know what do with them—are some of my favorite parts, and that's one of the best things about NaNoWriMo: what it forces your brain to come up with out of sheer unadulterated panic.
You write in the Romance genre, which is a very popular one for NaNoWriMo authors. Why do you think Romance and NaNoWriMo go so well together?
Romance authors as a group tend to be very driven and highly intelligent, and because of that, I think they've recognized that NaNoWriMo is a great way to harness energy. As Sarah Wendell said about romance, "It’s a 50-plus-year-old industry comprised mostly of women writers operating their own businesses and producing a genre about women’s self-actualization, pursuit of autonomy, and acquisition of sexual agency for an audience made mostly of women, who buy over $1.4 billion dollars worth of books a year." That's more than the mystery and science fiction genres put together! And romance writers are always looking for ways to write better, faster, and more productively -- NaNoWriMo fits that bill. It's a fun, difficult challenge that forces writers to rise to their best.
Do you have any tips specifically for Romance writers looking to find an agent and publisher for their NaNoWriMo manuscripts?
Tip #1: The best tip ever for romance writers: Get thee to your nearest Romance Writers of America meeting! Stat! There isn't a single better or more helpful professional writing group out there, in my opinion, and the writers involved will help you in every step of your writing process. Tip #2: Agentquery.com -- it's a great, free site that sorts agents by the genre they're looking for. It also tells you how to write a query, and exactly what each agent is looking for (partial manuscript, synopsis only, etc.). Tip #3: Don't believe anyone if they tell you you have to know someone in the industry. Sure, it's helpful, but people still make it through the slushpile. I did.
What advice do you have for folks who are feeling a little overwhelmed by the rigors of novel editing?
Oh, no, I'm not sure! I'm always editing! Editing is overwhelming, yes, but I find first drafts even more difficult and painful -- the last few Novembers found me scratching at posts and chewing glass because it's so hard to see such horrible words landing SPLAT on the page like that. Editing, oh, what a wonderful thing. Just think about how nice it is, to move big chunks of writing around, to change small words, to make everything pretty. My biggest tip is to have your manuscript in one file, and have another file titled CUTS. Feel free to move whole passages into your CUTS file, with the entire intention of someday fishing them out again and reusing them (you most likely never will but pretend that's not true -- it's a lovely lie). It's completely liberating, since I can't make myself delete anything.
If NaNoWriMo were a knitting project, what would it be? Trellis stitch shawl collar cardigan? Battle leggings? Something else?
Really, Chris? Trellis stitch shawl collar cardigan? How did you come up with that? I actually had to look that up, because I knew I'd never seen one, and it's HARD to stump me with the knitting. Here it is: http://www.knittingonthenet.com/patterns/sweshawlcard.htm and I am now filled with an unholy desire to make it, and to update it to make it fashionable. Now, THAT would be a great NaNoWriMo project. Good job! I am impressed.
You totally didn't answer the question.
Busted. First, we're going to assume that you already know about NaKniSweMo. (You did, right? Tell me you did. It's huge. Many people take part in both in November. I've done it myself.) But since I routinely knit sweaters in less than a month, that's not challenging, therefore I will not pretend that it's MY NaNoWriMo knitting project. If NaNoWriMo were a knitting project for ME, it would have to be something I'd always dreamed of knitting but never really thought I could (they way people feel about novel writing).
Okay. Truth now. It would be Alice Starmore's Golden Gate from her book Pacific Coast Highway, which is completely out of print, and when it can be found, starts at about $250. It's a densely cabled sweater, and the motion of the cables echo the sway of the iconic bridge, and when knitted in dark red wool, you can almost smell the salt water and hear the fog horns. It's my Someday Sweater. One day, I will own that pattern, and I will make that sweater.
Oh, yes. I will.
You had to make me to go there. (Heavy breathing.)
Thanks, Chris!
Rachael Herron received her MFA in writing from Mills College, and has been knitting since she was five years old. It's more than a hobby; it's a way of life. Rachael blogs at Yarn-a-Go-Go and lives with her better half in Oakland, California, where they have four cats, three dogs, three spinning wheels, and more instruments than they can count. She is a proud member of the San Francisco Area Romance Writers of America and she is struggling to learn the ukulele.
ETA 12:03, March 25th, 2010: Alright, all, the contest is officially closed! Congratulations to cwolfe2009 and Ted Boone! We'll be in touch with you soon. Thank you to everyone who entered the contest, and we're stoked to see you all back for Script Frenzy!
The pitch: We're inviting all the novelists of NaNoLand to come write a movie, play, TV show, or graphic novel script with us in April for Script Frenzy. To celebrate the imminent launch of the Frenzy on April 1, we're giving away two slots in Lani Diane Rich's online novel-writing classes.
To enter, just post a logline in the comments of this blog, either for your upcoming Script Frenzy script or for a screenplay adaptation of one of your NaNoWriMo novels. What's a logline, you ask? Great question!
A logline is your one-sentence answer to the question: "What's your movie about?" On the rare occasion, you can stretch it to two sentences, but ideally, loglines are brief, packed with information, and exciting! That means a sentence with punch that will engage your audience and make them go, "Wow! I need to see that movie."
A tall order! To inspire all you creative folks, here are a few loglines for well-known movies:
Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark: A dashing archaeologist races against Hitler's Nazi forces to find the lost Ark of the Covenant, a weapon that could turn the tides of history.
Jaws: After a series of grisly shark attacks, a sheriff struggles to protect his small beach community against the bloodthirsty monster, in spite of the greedy chamber of commerce.
Rushmore: A precocious private high school student whose life revolves around his school competes with its most famous and successful alumnus for the affection of a first grade teacher.
Loglines can be tricky, but they can also be a fun exercise to start thinking about the script you want to tackle in April. Here's a logline for a screenplay I've been working on:
His parents wounded by the death of their beloved oldest son, a young boy desperate to keep his family together sets out to do the impossible: resurrect his brother.
So, one more time. To win one of two spots in Lani Diane Rich's novel-writing classes, just comment to this post with the logline for your planned Script Frenzy screenplay, or a logline for the movie adaptation of one of your NaNoWriMo novels.
.jpg "Lani Diane Rich")
Discovery: Discover the story you want to tell in the first stage of preparing for a novel. Great if you're ready to start planning for NaNoWriMo 2010!
Revision: Polishing your rough draft. This is for all you winning Wrimos deep in revisions for your incredible, but raw, novel.
For more General Class Information, check here.
If you've already signed up for her classes, or decide you want to and still enter the contest, Lani will refund your tuition if you win this contest! You can't lose!
Please include a link to your NaNoWriMo author profile or blog so we can get a hold of you and let you know you've won. Two winners will be chosen at random at noon, Pacific time, on Thursday, March 25.
Thanks to Lani, and good luck to you all! We're excited to see the loglines you come up with!
- Tim
Quick note: To defeat spammers, we review every comment before it's posted on the blog. Because of this, your logline may take a day or more to appear. Fear not! It'll get up there.
When we get emails about NaNoWriMo novels finding a publisher, we raise a mug of coffee to the author's follow-through, and then add their book to the published-NaNo-novels FAQ. Which is all well and good. But I thought it might be more interesting to celebrate the author's achievement by forcing them do an onerous Q&A for the NaNo blog.
And here's our first victim! Donna Gephart, who just wrote in to say that her 2009 NaNo novel was purchased by Delacorte Press/Random House.
Yes, I said 2009 NaNoWriMo novel.
How did she do it? Read on!
Donna, this past November was your first NaNoWriMo. What made you decide to take part?
Sheer terror! A new novel was long overdue to my agent and editor, but I couldn't seem to come up with anything worth pursuing. NaNoWriMo seemed the perfect opportunity to plunge forward and knock out a new novel.You've published several novels previously. During the planning stage, how did you approach your NaNoWriMo first draft differently than previous first drafts you've written?
I didn't discover NaNoWriMo until two days before the start, so I had little time to prepare. Basically, the day before, at the 11th hour, I scrawled a title, OLIVIA BEAN, TRIVIA QUEEN, in a notebook. The next day, I blindly started writing about a girl who loved trivia and the game show, Jeopardy! With other novels, I'd spend several days writing notes about characters, plot ideas, etc. With NaNoWriMo, I wrote some of the novel each day, then scratched out notes on character, plot, etc. at breakneck speed. In fact, my handy notebook sat beside me daily as I wrote in case I came up with a relevant idea, fact or question.You kept friends and family updated on your word count (and life) through your blog in November. What are the advantages and disadvantages of a NaNoWriMo participant blogging their noveling progress?
My daily blogging during NaNoWriMo was personal insurance that I'd stay accountable. Nothing like public humiliation to keep one on track with one's writing goals! It also made me feel more connected during the solitary process of writing a novel.I've always encouraged participants to avoid editing in November. On your blog, you took issue with this idea, and said that revising was an important part of your book-building process. You managed to hit 50K with time to spare, so you clearly were able to fine-tune without hurting your output. Do you have tips on how Wrimos can also build productive bouts of revision into November's creative process?
Sometimes while writing, I come to a mental roadblock. I can't move the book forward. When this happens, I revisit what came before to make sure I haven't veered off track. Sometimes I need to change direction. I can't imagine plunging forward along a path that might be entirely wrong for a character. So, those brief times of going back and revising assure that I stay on the right track. I do this backtracking often at the beginning of writing a novel because it helps me get a strong foothold. Near the end of writing a novel, it's like a rock rolling downhill -- the writing becomes fast and furious, picking up speed.If you choose to revise as you go along, it's important not to linger on those revisions; don't use them as an excuse to keep from moving forward at a brisk pace. There will be plenty of time for revisions when the book is done and you can look at it as a whole.
What surprised you most about NaNoWriMo and your month-long novel?
It surprised me that we writers are capable of far more than we give ourselves credit for. Writing a novel in a month despite obligations and a busy life is quite an accomplishment . . . and commitment.If you could go back in time to November 1 and give yourself one bit of NaNoWriMo advice, what would it be?
Go for it with gusto! Unless you try, you'll never know what can happen. Sara Gruen's wonderful NaNoWriMo novel, Water for Elephants, kept me motivated to move forward on those days I absolutely didn't feel like writing. I hope my story will help spur you on to finish your novel!What tips do you have for other NaNoWriMo participants who penned middle-grade novels and are now looking for agents or publishers?
Long version: Make sure you don't send your first draft to an agent or editor. The competition is too intense. Revise, revise, revise until your manuscript is the best you can make it. A good critique group can help you work wonders with your manuscript as well. It took me years and many rejections from both agents and editors before I honed the skills necessary to write and revise a novel to the point at which it was publishable.Short version: Work hard. Don't quit. Good luck!!!
Donna Gephart wrote Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen in 29 days during NaNoWriMo 2009 and sold it to Delacorte Press/Random House fewer than three months later. She blogged about her experience with NaNoWriMo here and the sale of her book here. Donna is also the author of How to Survive Middle School
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