In light of today’s holiday, I’ve been thinking a lot about what the 4th of July means.  In doing all this thinking, I realized that there’s a lot we writers can learn from the 4th of July and the founding fathers.  Here are a few things I learned this weekend.

1) Don’t be afraid to state the obvious. We hold these truths to be self-evident… What the founding fathers were really saying when they wrote that was: “What we’re about to say is brutally obvious, but it bears repeating anyway, so listen up.”  They weren’t afraid to state the obvious, and we shouldn’t be afraid either.  Remember, while you may know the world of your story inside and out, your readers aren’t privy to all those details unless you tell them.  Don’t be afraid to give your readers all the details they need to get immersed in your world.

2) Keep it short and sweet. At the same time, don’t go overboard with the mundane details.  Remember the Declaration of Independence is a one-page document.  OK, so it’s a big page, but still it’s not a tome the size of a dictionary.  The founding fathers knew to keep their writing short and to the point.  If a detail is not important to your story, take it out!  Who was it that said “Kill your darlings?”  Well, pull that revolver down from the mantlepiece and start shooting.

3) Put it in writing. The founding fathers didn’t just sit around talking about freedom and independence and all that good stuff; they made decisions and wrote them down.  The same is true with our own writing.  Sure, we can get together with writer friends and chat about craft or talk about our stories, but sooner or later we have to shut up and write.  Remember, you can fix just about about anything in revision, but you can’t revise a blank page.

4) Give it room to grow. Even our beloved Constitution wasn’t perfect the first time it was written out.  (Um, that’s why we have amendments, right?  The founding fathers didn’t get it right the first time so they tried again.  And again.)  If the Constitution had been drafted as a perfect, flawless document, it would be static, stuck in time and not open to interpretation.  As we have it, the founding fathers implemented a way to make changes and gave the Constitution room to grow and evolve.  Give your own writing that same gift.  Sure, it might seem nice in theory to draft a perfect novel on the first try, but if you give it room to breathe, you’ll discover something truly wonderful that you wouldn’t have seen otherwise.

5) Celebrate with fireworks. At the end of the day, writing is hard work and when you hit a milestone (the end of a chapter, the end of a section, the end of a draft) you have to celebrate.  When all is said and done, light some fireworks (metaphorical ones, of course… I don’t want anyone messing up their writing hands) and celebrate!

W elcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature. I’m your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs. We’ve also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned! Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.

In light of the holiday weekend, today we’re doing a short post to announce the winner of the Sweethearts giveaway.  Don’t worry, we’ll be back next week with more YA Cafe fun.

The signed copy of Sweethearts by Sara Zarr goes to…

Drum roll please… *clears throat*

*fumbles with envelope*

*opens envelope*

Lydia Kang!!!

*throws confetti*  Congratulations!

Lydia, you should be getting an email shortly, asking for your mailing address so we can send you the book.

To everyone who celebrates the holiday this weekend, have a safe and fun 4th of July.  Eat lots of BBQ and watch cool fireworks.  Most importantly, have fun!

When I heard about J.C. Martin was publishing an anthology of short stories to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I knew I was looking at something special.  Some of you may remember J.C. Martin as one of the DIY MFA TAs, and together with her co-editor Michelle Davidson Argyle, she’s put together a fabulous collection of stories.  To purchase your copy, go here.  For more information about STORIES FOR SENDAI, visit the website.

Today J.C. shares some insider secrets on how to get an editor’s attention.  She gives some great tips on how to increase your chances of getting your work noticed, all based on her experiences putting together this anthology.  Thank you J.C and Michelle for including iggi&gabi on your blog tour!  And now, without further ado, here’s J.C.

How to Up Your Submission’s Chances of Getting Accepted

We’re really excited to be here on Iggi & Gabi’s blog on the release day of our charity anthology, Stories for Sendai! We are hoping to raise as much as we can to help the victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, so why not purchase a copy of the anthology today to help boost Stories for Sendai’s rankings in the Amazon charts, and to further increase our exposure?

Gabi suggested that people may be interested in learning about the editorial aspect of compiling the anthology, predominantly the process of selection: how did we pick our accepted entries? What did we look for? What didn’t we like? It occurred to us that this information might be useful for anyone considering submitting their work to magazines and anthologies, so we were more than happy to share what we know!

Selecting the entries was probably the hardest part of the whole project! We received so many fantastic stories and poems, we were forced to be ruthless with our choices, picking only the best of the best. What a challenge that was! But every entry that went straight into the ‘yes’ pile will have satisfied most (if not all) of the following criteria:

The story fits the required theme. Apart from the obvious aim: to raise money in aid of victims of the March earthquake and tsunami in Japan, we also wanted the stories in this anthology to be morally uplifting, to reflect the quiet strength and tenacity of the Japanese people in the face of overwhelming odds and adversity. As such, all selected entries for the anthology have one thing in common: apart from the fact that they are all awesome, each one is themed around hope, survival, and the strength of the human spirit.

That was a theme we stipulated in our submission guidelines: we wanted stories that left us with a warm fuzzy feeling, or a tear in our eye. However, you’d be surprised at how many entries we received that clearly did not fit the theme, or had the theme jackhammered into what is obviously not a piece of work written specifically for the anthology, but something that had been sitting in the writer’s drawer or computer folder for ages, that they decided to dust off and send in. It is annoying to receive entries like that, as it wastes both the editor’s time and yours.

The story is surprising. We’re big fans of the surprise ending. It’s a skill to be able to include a plot twist within the confines of a short story. Predictable storylines lull us into ‘skim-read’ mode—we already know the ending, so quit the preamble already! Endings with a “Woah, I didn’t see that coming!” factor will always grab the editor’s attention!

The story is unique. The beauty with short stories is that you can write just about anything, so go on—surprise us! Because of our stipulated theme, we received a load of entries about people living with terminal diseases—not only were they depressing, they’re cliché. Editors like it when writers think outside the conventional box. Wow us with something different!

If your story isn’t unique, you’ll need to pull out all the stops to impress us—beautiful prose, flawless writing, and something unexpected—yes, if you’re telling an old story, make sure you do it in a new and unique way!

The story is believable. Even fantasy stories about other realms must have a touch of realism to it. If we start thinking “That character wouldn’t do that!” or “Isn’t that a convenient coincidence!”, then there are inconsistencies in the story that has to be addressed.

The story is well written. Every writer will eventually develop their own writing style and voice. This can only come with practice. There is no use trying to write in the style of Ernest Hemingway when you’re a Stephen King; your prose will end up looking forced. Good writing, be it a lyrical piece of literary fiction, or short, simple prose in a commercial work, will flow well, effortlessly displaying the writer’s true voice.

Just remember: there is a fine line between amateurish writing and purple prose.

The story is proofread. Basic errors in SPG (spelling, punctuation and grammar) pees us off. A glaring typo jars us from the story, and awkward punctuation and sentence structures will prevent readers from completely immersing themselves into your story. Additionally, it smacks of unprofessionalism and laziness: if you can’t be bothered to make sure your work is as polished as it can be before submitting it, why should we give you the time of day?

The story is formatted according to our submission guidelines. We have been kinda lax with this, but it does rub some editors up the wrong way if they specifically asked for Times New Roman and you send in a piece of work entirely in Comic Sans. Correct formatting just makes life much easier for us in the publication stages, when we sort out the format and layout of the entire book. It may sound harsh that your work might be rejected just because it’s a bit too much work to format correctly, so play it safe and give the editors what they asked for.

And finally…

The story ‘feels right.’ If a story has satisfied all the above criteria, what really sells it for us is that feeling in our gut that tells us that this story is something special. It may be subjective, and sometimes entries can be like Marmite: you either hate it or love it, but we know we’re on to a winner when a story resonates with us!

Well, that’s it! We hope you found this information useful, and good luck with all your future submissions!

For an extra edge, why not try and win a critique of your short story, first chapter, query or synopsis? Just purchase a copy of Stories for Sendai and email us a copy of your receipt to be entered for the draw! Not only could you win a prize, you’ll get a lovely book of wonderful stories, and you’ll be helping the people of Sendai! Visit the Stories for Sendai website for more details of the contest!

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about educational content.  What does it mean exactly for something to be “educational” and how do we know if something is “educational” or not?  Back when I worked in toys, there were a lot of buzz words we used for marketing including that catch-all term: developmentally appropriate.  But really, what does all this mean?

When I wrote my Master’s Thesis for my psychology degree, I operated under the assumption that all toys and books are “educational” in the sense that kids can learn something from just about anything.  The question isn’t whether they’re learning something, but what they’re learning exactly.

Kids might learn colors and letters from alphabet blocks, but they may lessons about body image from fashion dolls.  They might learn their numbers by watching some TV programs but they might learn from superhero cartoons that it’s OK to hurt people if your intentions are good.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m not placing value-judgements here.  I’m not saying some toys/books/TV shows are good and some are bad.  I just think we as writers need to be aware that kids will learn many things from our books.  That being the case, let’s make sure they learn what we intended and not some other hidden message that we didn’t mean to convey.  Books don’t need to have a “message” in order to convey one.  The important thing is that we create our work with our eyes open, aware that kids will learn from just about anything.

I’ve discovered a couple of books that make learning fun and are able to hide the educational “message” rather effectively.  I’ll be discussing these books over the next few weeks so stay tuned.  In the meantime, I want to hear your take: What do you think of “educational” toys/books/TV shows?  Are some things more “educational” than others?

And if you’re a parent or teacher, do you limit which toys/books/TV shows your kids are exposed to?  Why or why not?

Is limiting books that kids read the same as censorship? Why or why not?