advice 8

Hyatt also suggests interviewing the editor of my book.  I'll be happy to do that whenever I get an editor.  I suppose an agent would be good, too.  When I get one.  If I get one.  The question to ask these valuable people is:  "What is it like to work with an author?"  Oh, boy!   I bet there are some fascinating stories there! 

advice 7

Hyatt says: Interview other novelists, especially in the genre I am writing for.  That would be those who write fiction or nonfiction for middle grade and young adults. 
I know lots of blogging authors do this, but I haven't tried it because I don't think anyone would find this particular blog a good place to showcase their work.  After all, although lots of people tell me they've read my blog--almost no one ever adds a comment or "follows" it.  I'd need a bigger audience before I could entice any successful novelist to spend valuable time on my interview.  So.....if you're interested in seeing others being interviewed here, please leave a nice comment saying so.  And follow!  Please. Thank you.

advice 6

Hyatt suggests interviewing the characters in the book. I do that all the time while I'm writing the book.  Sometimes, I think the character should act or react in a certain way, but I'm not sure if that's what he/she would really do.  So I ask him/her.  Okay, so I'm having imaginary conversations.  What did you think novelists do all the time?

advice 5

Interview self:  Hyatt says that authors who have been interviewed by professionals are often annoyed that the interviewer didn't ask the right questions.  Hmmm.  He suggests that the author's blog could suggest some questions that ought to be asked.  I need to read more interviews to see how they might be improved, especially if anyone were to interview me.  Can't imagine what they'd ask!

advice 4

Now this is more interesting for me:  Hyatt suggests doing something like "director's notes" on your DVD of a movie.  Tell why I started with this scene--now that's a good one because it's always tricky to decide exactly where to start.  Some editors want you to start "in media res" (or is that "in res media"?)--in the middle of the action with no introductory scenes at all.  Other editors want you to start with the ordinary.  We discussed this dilemma at our last writers' critiquing group.  We decided it really depended on what the story was, and how it could begin differently.  Other "director's notes": what scenes were deleted and why.  Oh, I have many versions of my novels.  I came across an old file of Angels in the Flames the other day, and it had a whole list of scenes I'd forgotten all about.  Then there are the scenes that were added to improve the book--heck, I added about half a dozen totally new chapters last time I revised that novel because the editor wanted to know what the brother was doing while the girl was on her mission.  Yes, I think those chapters did improve the book, even though the editor later decided not to publish any more books for that age group.  That hurt me, but the advice did help the book. 

advice 3

Hyatt suggests blogging about "behind-the-scenes" in a novelist's life.  Oh, how I'd love to see myself as a novelist!  But for this Hyatt suggests telling how it felt to land an agent and what it's like to see the book in print and hold a copy of it in your hands.  I'll let you know when that happens to me, other than in my favourite fantasies!

advice 2

Hyatt's second idea is to blog about the backstory of the novel.  That's something I could definitely do, especially for the novel I'm currently working on because I wrote it all out, all 50,000 (plus) words of it for NANOWRIMO in 2009.  This novel begins almost exactly where the nano novel ended.  That was fun to do, and very helpful when I need to know more about characters that were featured in it that are going to come up in this current novel.  More of that later.  Right now, I'm just looking at Hyatt's list.  To see backstories of my novels, check the label: backstories.