If you haven’t heard of this
week’s “Each One Teach One” Interviewee Author Megan Shepherd, you soon will! Megan
is a rising star in the YA publishing world.
(Go Megan!) She has 2 YA fiction trilogies about to hit the bookstore shelves beginning in January 2013, from Harper Collins, and
she already has a loyal following. The first of her books, THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER has already been optioned for film!
In addition to her YA
writing, Megan also serves as editor for the Pen and Palette, the quarterly
publication of SCBWI Carolinas.
Because Megan has found her
niche on the fast track in YA noveling success, I wanted to interview her on
writermorphosis so that she can share with us some of her techniques and
experiences. This will be a 2 part
interview – today, and next Saturday.
Thanks so much, Megan, for taking time out from your
writing to be here with us today! As usual, we’ll start with our normal first
question. Please tell us who was a more experienced author or other publishing
professional who helped you when you were first starting out in the fiction
world? What did that person help you with?
When I started out writing, I didn’t know a soul in
the publishing world. I’d grown up in a bookstore, so I knew a lot about
authors, but wasn’t acquainted with any of them personally. It wasn’t until I
went to the Highlights Chautauqua Workshop in 2009 that I first met published
authors and industry professionals. Alvina Ling, Editorial Director at Little,
Brown Books for Young Readers, was assigned as my mentor during the weeklong
workshop. She read three samples of my work and gave me incredible feedback.
More than that, she gave me the encouragement and confidence to believe my work
was (or would be) publishable. She liked the novel I was working on at the
time, and even took it to Little, Brown acquisitions board. It was rejected,
but she gave me a revision letter. By that time I was working on THE MADMAN’S
DAUGHTER, so nothing else happened with it. I don’t know if Alvina would
remember me, but she was really the first person to make me believe I had a
shot at this crazy dream, and for that I will always be so grateful to her.
That’s really great, Megan. Encouragement definitely is often the most
powerful “help” that anyone can give to a new author. Great job, Alvina Ling!
What a Beautiful Cover Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins has made for the first book
in your first Trilogy! I love it!
Now that Alvina Ling's encouragement (and a ton of hard
work on your part) is propelling you into great YA noveling success, I want to
pick your brain a little to learn some of the things you’re doing “right” that
perhaps the rest of us can learn from.
But before we get into the nitty gritty, I know that many new writers envision that
becoming a published author will be easy. But in truth it takes a lot of time
and hard work. So, in order to ground us
in reality a bit, tell us please, how long ago did you start planning and
writing THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER Trilogy?
And did you write other manuscripts before this one that you have
shelved for now because you felt they weren’t ready for publication?
Yes. I wrote three full
manuscripts before coming up with the idea for THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER. Two were
middle grade adventures, and one was a YA psychological thriller. I barely
queried any of those—I knew they weren’t good enough. In addition to those, I
started but never finished about five other novels, and started developing
about twenty ideas that I later decided weren’t strong enough.
I came up with the idea for
THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER in September 2010 and started writing it straight away. I
had a full-time job at the time, so I could only work on it evenings, lunch
breaks, and weekends. I finished it in June 2011, and submitted it to agents. A
few weeks later, I had an agent, a book deal, and a film option!
Wow! That
second paragraph about how quickly you wrote THE MADMAN'S DAUGHTER, and how
quickly you got an agent for it, sold it, and got the film option leaves us all
amazed and inspired, I think! But even more important is the paragraph right
before it where you described all the work that laid the foundation for that
success, and all those prior novel manuscripts where you learned and
strengthened your writing skills.
That’s a wonderful reminder to all of us of the need to keep honing our
skills and not to give up if we haven’t “arrived” yet!
Ok, now for the “brain-picking.” I know that many people are interested in writing trilogies or series’. How did you decide that these books needed to
be trilogies versus stand-alone novels?
I hadn’t intended THE
MADMAN’S DAUGHTER to be a trilogy; I wrote it as a stand-alone, which is what
they tell most aspiring writers to do. But when I reached the end of the book,
I realized the story had really only begun. So when my agent suggested we
expand it into a proposal for a trilogy, I definitely agreed!
I always planned for THE CAGE
to be a trilogy. I knew that the first book in that series would only be a
jumping-off point, and the action would continue and grow in the second and
third books.
Yes, I have always heard that it’s better to
write your first book as a “stand alone” and then if the editor or agent
recommends a Trilogy go with that. I’m glad to see an example of how that
played out in your case.
So now that you
are writing trilogies, Megan, what has been your process for developing a
compelling plot that will carry your character logically and with proper
passion and emotions through 3 books? Do
you use a comprehensive plot outline for the entire trilogy plus one for each
separate book? Index cards? A plot map on the wall? What has worked for you so
far?
Since I hadn’t planned from
the start for THE MADMAN’S DAUGHTER to be a trilogy, that series-long arc has
been very difficult, and I’ve had to continually brainstorm and revise as I’ve
gone along. Now that I’m starting to write Book #3, it’s crucial that I
continue and wrap-up the internal and external arcs—not an easy thing, and I’m
not exactly sure HOW I’m going to do it!
For THE CAGE, this is easier.
Since I always knew it was going to be a trilogy, right from the start I
planned for that. Instead of thinking about each book’s individual plot arc
first, I started by thinking about the series arc, then breaking that down into
three components that each have their own unique story and arc.
Hmmm. It’s interesting to think about the complexities
of creating the larger trilogy plot-arc after having written the first book as
a stand-alone. It does seem easier the way you're doing it for THE CAGE. I wonder if it would be
helpful for people who are writing the first book as a stand-alone, but who
think they might want to expand it into a series if given the chance later, to write
a bit of a larger outline for the whole 3 books at the beginning, just so that they have
thought through where they would take the books if they went past the first one. Then they can write a separate outline just for the initial "stand-alone" novel, and write that book.
Do you have any additional specific recommendations
for new authors who do want to pitch
a trilogy idea to agents or editors?
Middle grade and YA trilogies
are popular now, but they are hard to pitch if you’re an aspiring writer
because you don’t have a proven track record. In my case, my agent recommended
we expand the idea into a trilogy, and I trusted his opinion. I still think the
advice of writing a stand-alone is best. If you have an idea that really must
be a trilogy, write only the first book, and then write a one-page synopsis for
the second and third books. It’s useless to write all three books before the
first one’s sold. I think the best bets are “stand-alones with series
potential.” That gives editors the most flexibility, which works in writers’
favor.
Thanks, Megan. That’s great advice! I defintely have enjoyed some wonderful YA trilogies and series' in the past, and I am looking forward to yours!
Next Saturday we'll be back here with some more fun
interview answers from Megan, including, specific tips on what she includes in her
plot maps, and how she keeps up with writing two series’ at once! See you then.
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