I've Actually Gotten Younger
I've gotten younger. Like backwards in time younger. It didn't happen with creams or surgery or exercise (thank God) or wardrobe changes or thinking. Well, maybe with thinking. Yeah, definitely thinking.
After re-posting my query letter on Evil Editor's blog for feedback for a second lashing I was forced to re-THINK the Young Adult classification of my novel. At first I toyed with the idea of making my MC older, but concluded it just wouldn't work. She is 12, she thinks like a 12 year old, she reacts like a 12 year old. Making her an angst ridden high school girl would ruin her middle school innocence. I kept her a 6th grader.
Lots and lots and lots of writers have discussed this with me face to face, on this here blog and via snarky comments on Evil Editor's blog & Miss Snark's First Victim. I heard/read it over and over again: Why don't you make this a Middle Grade? This should be a Middle Grade. You can't have a 12 year old in a YA. ETC...
I'm not sure if you know this about me but I'm stubborn. I'm a Scorpio. We're a stubborn bunch of wonderful people, us Scorpios. When I'm passionate about something, or I feel strongly that I'm right, its like the black ink of stubbornness silently travels through my veins contaminating me from the inside out, staining my thoughts. Oooh, that could sooooooooo be a poem, look...
I feel strongly
That I'm right
The black ink of stubbornness
Silently travels through
My veins
Contaminating me
From the inside out
Staining
My thoughts
Anyway, back to my point. Me, stubborn. Book, clearly not YA. Brain, long time realizing it.
My book has similarities to The Lighting Thief and Harry Potter (no, silly, I'm not saying my unpublished book is as good as those incredibly successful books). The similarities are the age of the MC, the MC's unknown heritage, the suspense, the absence of teen angst/lust/alcohol.
Boy, I am dense sometimes.
I have been reading a slew of YA novels lately and while reading If I Stay the understanding smacked me in the forehead. YOUR BOOK IS NOT YA IT IS MIDDLE GRADE, YOU DUMMY.
I'm going to now try querying The End of Normal as Middle Grade to the last agents left on my list. It feels good to get younger. Like this is how it should've been in the beginning. Wish me luck.
After re-posting my query letter on Evil Editor's blog for feedback for a second lashing I was forced to re-THINK the Young Adult classification of my novel. At first I toyed with the idea of making my MC older, but concluded it just wouldn't work. She is 12, she thinks like a 12 year old, she reacts like a 12 year old. Making her an angst ridden high school girl would ruin her middle school innocence. I kept her a 6th grader.
Lots and lots and lots of writers have discussed this with me face to face, on this here blog and via snarky comments on Evil Editor's blog & Miss Snark's First Victim. I heard/read it over and over again: Why don't you make this a Middle Grade? This should be a Middle Grade. You can't have a 12 year old in a YA. ETC...
I'm not sure if you know this about me but I'm stubborn. I'm a Scorpio. We're a stubborn bunch of wonderful people, us Scorpios. When I'm passionate about something, or I feel strongly that I'm right, its like the black ink of stubbornness silently travels through my veins contaminating me from the inside out, staining my thoughts. Oooh, that could sooooooooo be a poem, look...
I feel strongly
That I'm right
The black ink of stubbornness
Silently travels through
My veins
Contaminating me
From the inside out
Staining
My thoughts
Anyway, back to my point. Me, stubborn. Book, clearly not YA. Brain, long time realizing it.
My book has similarities to The Lighting Thief and Harry Potter (no, silly, I'm not saying my unpublished book is as good as those incredibly successful books). The similarities are the age of the MC, the MC's unknown heritage, the suspense, the absence of teen angst/lust/alcohol.
Boy, I am dense sometimes.
I have been reading a slew of YA novels lately and while reading If I Stay the understanding smacked me in the forehead. YOUR BOOK IS NOT YA IT IS MIDDLE GRADE, YOU DUMMY.
I'm going to now try querying The End of Normal as Middle Grade to the last agents left on my list. It feels good to get younger. Like this is how it should've been in the beginning. Wish me luck.
