Christy English

Writing and Re-Writing

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009 | Once It Is Sold, The Writing Life | No Comments

I disappeared for months again. In spite of all my best intentions, I keep doing that. This winter, I had a good excuse.

I was re-writing my book.

When I say re-writing, I don’t mean going over it once more and checking for errors. I meant that I started again at page one, and re-wrote the whole thing. Almost 500 pages. 483 pages, to be exact.

If I sound like I’m bragging, it’s because I am.

Not everyone can re-write an entire novel in less than two months, and make it better. I feel good about what I did, not only the intentions I had when I began, but the place I find myself now. Namely, waiting to hear back from my editor. No matter how joy-filled I am in my own accomplishment, in the end, I have to put myself back in the chair.

Good thing I like to live there.

A New Year: Looking Ahead

Wednesday, December 31st, 2008 | Once It Is Sold, The Writing Life | 2 Comments

As 2008 draws to a close, I, like so many, think not only of the year just passed, but of what the new year might bring. With my book sold, I have hope for more progress with my work: more sales, building a readership, finding the people who will benefit the most from my novel, and who will find the most joy in it. But I am also grateful for the year just passed, for its challenges as well as its benefits. Changing agents, learning more about my work and how to make it better, were all challenges that at first seemed like obstacles. But each led me to new places, places I would never have gone, to country I would not otherwise have seen.

I look forward to exploring new country in 2009.

High Concept: Where Art Meets Commerce

Thursday, December 11th, 2008 | Once It Is Sold, Selling Your Work, The Writing Life | No Comments

Last night, a couple of friends took me to dinner to celebrate my long-awaited sale. One of them was Elana Roth from the Caren Johnson Literary Agency. We had an interesting discussion of what makes a “high concept” story. Elana works with Children’s fiction, Middle Reader’s fiction, and YA fiction. My focus is adult historical fiction, but storytelling is storytelling. What makes an agent or an editor hear a pitch or an idea and say, “Yes, I have to read that”?

No doubt it takes more than one thing to catch an agent’s or an editor’s eye: a well polished query and a professional presentation are just the beginning.  Beyond the mechanics of making a pitch, what about the concept itself? What makes one irresistible and another simply one more letter in the slush pile?

To find Elana’s definition of what “high concept” means, please look on the Caren Johnson Literary Agency’s website:

www.johnsonlitagency.wordpress.com/2008/10/24/defining-high-concept

From talking to Elana, I gathered that a high concept idea can be summed up in one sentence, and contains something unexpected, a hook or a twist that is unique and interesting. A writer with a high concept storyline then must have the talent and dedication to execute it. This post is about what “high concept” means. In my next post, I will write about the challenge of making your writing good enough for an editor to buy. As you may imagine, the later is much harder, and often takes years.

A high concept story idea can be handed to a writer by the Muse, or discovered waiting in line at the supermarket, or while reclining in the dentist’s chair. Or, if a writer is very lucky, as I was, an editor or agent will take the time to make a suggestion that will transform a good storyline into one that can not be turned from.

My novel, The Queen’s Pawn, began as a novel told solely from the point of view of Alais, Princess of France. While Alais’ voice was compelling and garnered compliments from various editors, it did not secure a sale. Only when Eleanor of Aquitaine joined the novel, and added her voice to the story, did the book take flight. The story of A Lion in Winter as told from the point of view of the French princess is interesting, but is not high concept. The story of Eleanor of Aquitaine and her protégée, Alais of France, battling for King Henry’s love and for the throne of England is high concept.

Queries can be improved and concepts can be heightened, but ultimately, every writer must follow her Muse in her own way. A high concept storyline just makes a book easier to sell.

Getting The Call

Friday, November 21st, 2008 | Once It Is Sold, Selling Your Work, The Writing Life | 1 Comment

As a writer who has spent ten years pursuing my art, getting the call from my agent that my book sold was the highlight not only of this year, but of my life to date.  It is hard to convey the significance of this. I am still trying to process the experience.  Everyone has a dream, whatever that dream might be. My dreams, like those of most people, have shifted somewhat over time. From a fasciantion with acting and theatre, I moved into writing fiction ten years ago. Writing novels is all I have wanted to do for the last ten years. I have written more than one complete novel, and now that I have sold one, I am delirious with joy.

As I try to reach for the language to express the feeling of accomplishment, I fail. Others have spoken to me of how lovely it must be to finally have the external validation of a sale, to know that others value my work. While this is true, it is not as large a factor as I thought it would be. I find that what gives me the greatest joy is knowing that my words will be read by those I do not know, that my characters’ stories will be told to those whom I will never meet. I feel at last as if I have fulfilled the next step in my mission: these stories have been entrusted to me, and now I see that they will finally go out into the world. Whether others receive them as warmly as I hope is beyond my control. (Yes, the thing about reaching one goal is beginning to hope for another: in this case, I hope to sell out my print run and have a second.) My book will be out in the world in little over a year, and I feel finally as if I have done my job.