aspiring (chick lit) writers: keep this in mind

I judge a bunch of contests, and I highly recommend the activity to aspiring writers. There’s nothing that teaches you what makes published and publishable work as reading unpublished and unpublishable work. I’d love to say that I learn the most about what makes good writing when I read good writing, but that’s not often the case. When I read good writing, I get caught up and I don’t notice it. Maybe subconsciously. When I read bad writing, then my internal editor is on alert. This scene drags, this part is unnecessary, this character is acting out of character for no good reason…

(Of course, I always “retune my ear” as Nephele Tempest (Knight Agency) says, by reading good books. If you don’t retune after reading something bad or mediocre, you’re in danger of writing that way yourself, I think. But this is a new discovery of mine. Your mileage may vary.)

Most of the contest entries I judge are in the “chick lit” or “mainstream with romantic elements” categories of RWA-sponsored contests (And of course, the Stiletto, which is ALL chick lit). And though in general, I’d say the main problem I see in contest entries is that the story does not begin in the right place, lately I’ve been noticing a new primary snag: The Meh. And it’s not the Meh that Red Pen Diaries discussed a few months back, the one that often gets published — or rather, it is. But not for a debut (these contests are all for unpublished novelists) and not in today’s chick lit market. Because it’s really not enough to be writing a chick lit book about a single girl in the city struggling with jobs and a guy. Those books have been written, and the authors writing them are under contract already.

Chick Lit Author Melissa Senate discusses this here:

You don’t much see “traditional” any more. Editors and agent will tell you chick lit manuscripts need to be “different” and “fresh” and “have a twist.” Then again, a “traditional” Chick Lit novel about a young woman in the city, dealing with that evil boss, dating woes, meddling relatives, and searching for her own happiness and peace of mind, will always have a place on the shelves if the author’s voice is both entertaining and honest.

Bolding mine. 😉 Naturally, there is a place for that story, but it’s not necessarily the place where an author breaks in. Where do you see the first sales in chick lit these days? Paranormal girls in the city with evil devil bosses and dating werewolf woes; ethnic chick lit where the meddling relatives are lamenting the fact that their daughter is straying from her cultural roots and shoving the heroines into arranged marriages with the nice Indian boys coming over from Delhi; celebrity chick lit where the meddling relatives might well be overbearing managers, and the dating woes take the place of the rock star or the nice, NORMAL boy she meets who has never graced the pages of Vanity Fair; mystery and thriller chick lit where the heroine must find her own happiness WHILE ALSO tracking down the killer; or any number of other permutations that do not necessarily contain any of these elements, but otherwise have something special to offer readers who are full up on the Sex and the City model, but still love them some chick lit.

Please note, I’m not saying these are your only options, nor am I saying that if you write a vampire Indian/Hispanic movie star private detective chick lit will the agents be knocking down your door to get at it. It could still suck, certainly. Because in the end the fresh elements are just window dressing what you really bring to the table, which is your fresh voice. Jess Riley, who might be the most recent chick lit debut sale I can think of, has none of these elements in her work:

“Jessica Riley’s RIDING WITH LARRY RESNICK tells the story of a twenty-five year-old kidney transplant recipient who finds herself the grateful owner of a functional kidney once belonging to a man named Larry Resnick.”

But this work received top scores from all judges (preliminary and final round) in the 2004 Stiletto and sold at auction in a hard/soft deal to Harper (and in December, too, which “everyone knows” is not a month to sell books). So there was something about this that broke the mold (without the benefit of vamps, serial killers, or Southeast Asian ties).

A few years ago (YEARS!!!!), an editor at Red Dress Ink posted an article on eharlequin (since the reorganizing, I can’t find the article — Shannon? Help a girl out?) stating that they, the acquisitions department, were damn sick of the same old same old single girl in the city working in publishing and dealing with bad boyfriends and meddling moms. She called it Bridget Jones’s Diary syndrome. And that was in at least 2003. Now it’s 2006.

When I judge contests, I read a lot of these. Really cute, really adorable stories, well-written, but not saying anything new. Not saying anything that the dozens of chick lit writers already under contract at all the major houses either didn’t say a few years ago or aren’t saying right now.

But, as Teresa Nielsen Hayden (Tor) says, whenever she tells people she’s sick of something, the people she doesn’t want to listen (i.e., the people who do the something she’s sick of in a new, fresh way) are the ones who listen, and the people she’s talking about are the ones that don’t. So I say that if you can read this, and then examine your work with a critical eye, and still say, well, I’ve got the “always a bridesmaid, never a bride, girl in publishing, dating woes, meddling relatives, evil boss, can’t fit into size six, gay best friend” book that’s different, then I say that maybe you do, and you should keep at it! It’s all in the execution, as Leslie Wainger (Silhouette) says.

Shanna Swendson, for instance, took the classic tale of “girl in the city” chick lit and threw in one element that completely permeated the plot and made it into something new and fresh. The result was Enchanted Inc.

And, after all, the heroine of Secret Society Girl works in publishing. Kinda. And she’s deinfitely got dating woes. I took great pleasure in including all of the standard tropes of a chick lit novel and then making them all do headstands.

I even sneaked in Bridget Jones’s Diary. Because I love chick lit, in all its varieated, evolving forms, and for all the potential it contains.